See The Horrific Accident Along Umuahia Okigwe Road

May the soul of the deceased rest in peace

Rivers state rerun elections five feared killed

The federal and state legislative rerun elections in Rivers State, held yesterday,  erupted in violence that led to the death of at least five persons and culminated in the cancellation of polls in four local government areas of the state. Dynamites, guns and other weapons of violence were used  in the elections that were also shadowed by accusations of sloppiness by officials of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Governor Nyesom Wike, after voting in his Ward 9, Unit 7 in Obio Akpor local government area, was quick to chastise INEC for conducting what he described as a performance below expectation. He was almost immediately countered by the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Mr Aniedi Ikoiwak, who blamed political actors for instigating the violence that led to the shifting of polls in Andoni, Bonny, Khana and Gokana local government areas. He also described as untrue the  allegations of the circulation of fake result sheets made by PDP officials, challenging them to produce what they imagined as the original result sheets. The heaviest casualties were in Asari-Toru local government area where three of the five persons were killed.

It was gathered that a bullet hit a trader, identified as Gabriel Amachree, around the Town Square during  a  gun battle by political thugs in Buguma, headquarters of the local government. He was one of the two who lost their lives in Buguma. The third fatality in the local government occurred in Abalama community. Community sources alleged that a chieftain of one of the political parties left his ward in Buguma  for  Abalama.  When those in Abalama insisted he should leave, he initially refused, a situation that provoked a confrontation. The community sources said when  the party chieftain  saw that  angry youths were surging towards him, he jumped into his car and, in his speed, he  crushed a young man to death. The fourth person was shot and killed in Eleme local government area while the fifth was allegedly shot dead in Tai local government area. Rivers State Police Public Relations Officer, Ahmad Muhammad, said he had not been informed by the police in the area of the deaths in Buguma and Tai local government areas. Dynamites were reportedly detonated in Konor local government area in the course of the elections. There was controversy also yesterday on the fate of the Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Mr Kenneth Kobani. While PDP officials claimed  he was like many other chieftains of the PDP that were arrested. It was gathered that soldiers deployed to Bodo, headquarters of Gokhana local government area, restricted his movement before he was later let off. Other PDP officials, however, insisted that he was arrested and later released in his Kono community. In Akinima, Ahoada West local government area, it was learnt that a young man, identified as Philip, was shot by security agents while trying to hijack materials. APC, PDP youths were reported to have clashed in Ward 4, Unit 8, Rumuodumayan, in Obio Akpor  local government area with some of them sustaining serious injuries. Theophilus Nna Martin of the APC alleged he was stabbed by PDP thugs while Chile Ekwe made similar allegations against the APC, saying he was stabbed on the head.

Despite the presence the military and other security agencies, there were  reports of shootings by party activists to scare and intimidate opponents. In Abonnema, headquarters of Akuku Toru local government area, there was shooting in the early hours of the day in the community. The INEC centre in Akinima, Ahoada West local government area, was allegedly attacked, leading to the beating up of some National Youth Service Corps  (NYSC) members by political thugs. One of the NYSC members was reportedly hospitalised on account of the beating. A police spokesman in the state, DSP Ahmad Muhammad, said two persons were arrested around Choba with fake INEC materials and another nine picked in Tai local government area. Materials arrived late in several wards in the state which the shootings helped to dampen voters’ enthusiasm. Ikwere local government area, the base of Rotimi Amaechi, the immediate past governor of the state and incumbent Minister of Transportation, was, however, an exception as there were accounts of impressive turn out of voters. Amaechi voted in his Ubima Ward  8, Unit 14, and refused to comment on the progress of the elections.

There were allegations of fake INEC materials in circulation in some voting units in Degema. In Ward 12, Unit 11, Degema, one Sam Goodluck alleged that fake result sheets were brought to the polling unit.

Governor Wike, who  voted in his Ward 9, Unit 7 in Obio Akpor local government area, expressed dissatisfaction with INEC’s preparedness for the exercise. Speaking on the polls, he said: “I stood for over five minutes before the card reader captured me. “Generally on the part of INEC, I cannot give them a pass mark now on preparedness.  If they are facing challenges, they should let the world know than going to the field when they are not ready, “People have expected that the elections  will not hold because they are saying that there were fake result sheets everywhere.  I called INEC and let them know about the development. “INEC is not properly prepared but security agents are doing their best.” The State REC, Mr Aniedi Ikoiwak, however, dismissed the insinuation of poor preparation as he pushed the blame on the political actors who he said violated the spirit of the game who through their violent conduct prevented the commission from moving election materials to some areas. “I don’t think there was anything like fake result sheets. You can imagine what you think but what we know in the commission was that only a result sheet was produced and you cannot say a thing that does not have a duplicate is fake because fake must be compared with the original. So what we had was the original; the fake may be in the imagination of those making such an allegation”.

JAMB candidates take to violence at Lagos Assembly

SOME candidates, who wrote the 2016 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) Computer Based Test (CBT), took their grievances to the Lagos State House of Assembly in Alausa, Lagos yesterday.

But the candidates, numbering hundreds, along with their parents and tutorial centre operators, went violent.

They threw stones at the Assembly security gate and security men to ventilate their anger after waiting for hours without being attended to by the lawmakers.

Some of the candidates were arrested by members of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), who were mobilized to prevent them from entering the Assembly premises.

They faulted the “wrong scores” released by the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) for the examination.

They questioned the integrity of the results released by JAMB since some candidates had 40 marks added and others had marks deducted from their original scores.

The candidates chanted statements like “give us our real marks”; “This cannot be our real marks”; 

“Dibu must go”; “Our systems went off during exam and nothing was done about it.”

Addressing the protesting candidates, the Majority Leader of the House, Sanai Agunbiade, said it was not the fault of the lawmakers that they did not attend to them promptly.

He explained that they were busy attending to other important matters.

Agunbiade told them that they were in the right place to lodge their complaint, adding that they should not have been violent.

He assured them that their case would be taken to the appropriate quarters.

However, JAMB claimed that the protest was fuelled by “education consultants, whose CBT centres 

were disqualified from running the UTME for not meeting quality standard.

Recounting their experiences yesterday, the candidates complained of system failure during the examination, text message scores that did not tally with online scores, among others.

They asked JAMB to allow them retake the examination.

Eniola Akinbiyi, who sat for the examination at Obafemi Awolowo University ICT Centre, Ile Ife, said her computer shut down twice during the examination.

She said: “My computer shut down twice during the examination. I informed the supervisors and they said I should not worry. But when I checked my result, I had 188. That cannot be my result because what I read came out in the examination. I was very sure of myself.”

Usman Sanusi, who had to travel from Lagos to his centre at Adedokun Hall, Ibadan, said he got four versions of results.

“They sent three different scores to my phone. They first sent 101, then 178 and 188. Which one am I supposed to believe? When I finally checked online, I saw 179 and I could not accept the score, because I am better than that. My mum did not believe when I told her my score. She has been very angry with me, saying I wasted her money. JAMB is making parents fight with their children. Things are not so bad for students to enter university in other countries. Why is it always Nigeria that has problems with everything?” he said.

Boluwatife Joseph took the examination at Igbajo Polytechnic in Osun State on March 7, and got results for subjects she did not take.

“When I was writing my exam, the system shut down twice. I saw that I still had one hour 30 minutes left. But I had not even written Maths at all when the system shut down. When the result came out, I saw that I had 37 in English, the Maths I did not even write, I had 47. How come? Then my overall score, when sent by text was 220.  But when I went to print out yesterday, it became 168. What happened? It is unfair. This is my first time of writing JAMB and I don’t want to go to polytechnic,” she said.

This year was the third time Temitope Ayeni took the UTME, and it was not a pleasant experience at her centre, Bachel Model College, Ogba on March 7.

“When I was writing, my system went off and I still had about one hour. When I logged back in, it told me ‘submitted.’ When I got the result text message, it told me I scored 246. When I checked online on March 8, it told me ‘no result.’ This is not the first time I am writing JAMB. It is the third. Last year, they logged me out before I finished and I had 199. The year before, I had 258, but I did not gain admission because of UNILAG’s post-UTME,” she said.

Olalekan Ajetumobi was marked absent even though he got to his centre on time and took the examination.

President of the Association of Tutorial School Operators, Mr. Oludotun Shodunke, issued a three-day ultimatum to the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, to give the candidates their real grades.

He said: “We are protesting because of the terrible thing done by the JAMB registrar. He decided not to mark this year’s JAMB. He just gave out marks arbitrarily.”

Board: protest instigated by education consultants

THE Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged the protesting candidates to direct their complaints to the board rather than being used by “education consultants” for selfish interest.

A statement issued by its Public Relations Officer, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, described the “education consultants” as business owners that applied to run the examination as Computer Based Centres but failed JAMB’s screening.

The statement reads: “JAMB has called for calm and advised candidates to always avail themselves of the opportunity provided by the Board through it public complaints unit to vent their grievances and not to allow anybody to use them for any selfish interest.

“The Board had approved centres provided by these individuals to be used for the 2016 exercise, but unfortunately couldn’t as the centres were found to be lacking in all the indices needed for a successful CBT examination.  This was discussed with these proprietors and they showed understanding as they witnessed the difficulties the Board went through to run even a session in their centres.

“It is surprising that these same proprietors will turn around to organized candidates to protest over our activities.”

Obviously referring to the hitches experienced in some centres during the conduct of the 14-day examination, Benjamin asked for support for the CBT examination, which he said is better than the paper-pencil test.

“We are not perfect as an organization but working hard to ensure that Nigerian education is better than it is.  We have taken the risk to do the unthinkable so as to change the paradigm.

“It is no news that the worst CBT is far better than the best Paper and Pencil Test. At least, the era of candidates pouring acid on staff, bolting with question papers into the bush and all manners of unthinkable embarrassing acts are gone,” he said.