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Lagos court remands 13-year old boy for ‘defiling’ 11-year old girl
An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in Lagos State on Friday remanded a 13-year-old boy (name withheld) in a correctional home, for allegedly defiling an 11-year-old girl. The Magistrate, Ejiro Kubeinje, who did not take the juvenile’s plea, directed the police to send the case file to the state Director of Public Prosecutions for advice. She adjourned the case until August 17 pending legal advice from the DPP’s office. The Prosecution Counsel, Bisi Ogunleye, told the court that the defendant committed the offence in March at his residence. He said that the defendant unlawfully had sexual intercourse with the girl. Ogunleye said, “After he had satisfied his sexual urge, he released her. “The girl cried to her mother and told her what the defendant did to her. “The parent of the girl reported the c...
2021 UTME results: Candidates, parents decry low scores
File Photo Reactions have continued to follow the recently released results of the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). Some candidates and parents who spoke in separate interviews with newsmen on Monday in Bwari, Abuja, expressed their displeasure. NAN recalls that the board on Friday, June 25, released the first batch of results of candidates who sat for the examination between Saturday, June 19, and Tuesday, June 22. While some candidates expressed satisfaction with their scores, others expressed disappointment on the results. Oluwakemi Moses, a candidate, who said that she wanted to study medicine, said she scored 167, a score she explained, was not only too low but also below her first attempt of t...
Kogi criminalises hawking by children during school hours
Kogi Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Wemi Jones, says it is now an offence in the state for a child of school age not to be in school or seen hawking during school hour. Jones stated this on Thursday in Lokoja, at a stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting on the newly enacted Kogi State Education Law. According to Jones, the new law is contained in Section 9 of the Kogi Education Law. ”If any child is seen hawking or doing anything during school hour, that child shall be apprehended by the Special Marshals that will be put in place. “The parent or guardian of such child (must) come to give reasons why the child is not in school, and we are very serious about this,” he said. Jones said that the proliferation of private schools has become a source of concern and worry to t...
Report: Jack Ma’s Ant Group considers overhaul due to regulatory pressure
Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group plans reorganisation that would allow it to be regulated more like a bank, Bloomberg reports. Jack Ma’s besieged Ant Group Co. is planning to fold its financial operations into a holding company that could be regulated more like a bank, according to people familiar with the situation, potentially crippling the growth of its most-profitable units. The fintech giant is planning to move any unit that would require a financial license into the holding company, pending regulatory approval, said the people, who asked not be named because the matter is private. The plans are still under discussion and subject to change, the people said. Ant declined to comment. The operations that Ant is looking to fold into the holding company include wealth managemen...
Families of kidnapped Katsina schoolboys fear time running out
Families of more than 300 kidnapped Nigerian schoolboys worried they may be brainwashed or held for years as security forces combed a vast forest on Wednesday for armed captors possibly from the jihadist Boko Haram movement. According to an unverified audio clip, the Islamist group – whose name means “Western education is forbidden” – was responsible for last week’s raid on an all-boys school in the town of Kankara in northwestern Katsina state. Parents fear time may be running out: Boko Haram has a history of turning captives into jihadist fighters. “They will radicalise our children if the government does not act fast to help us rescue them,” said trader Shuaibu Kankara, crying as he spoke from home. His 13-year-old son Annas was among those abducted from the Government Science school on...
Bill to extend free education to senior secondary school passes second reading
A Bill for an Act to amend the Compulsory, Free, Universal Basic Education Act on Wednesday, passed second reading in the House of Representatives. The bill, which seeks to expand the scope of compulsory free basic education in Nigeria to include, Senior Secondary Education level, was sponsored by Taiwo Oluga and four other lawmakers. Leading the debate, Ms Oluga said the bill sought to amend sections 2, 4, 7, 11 and 15 of the existing Act. The lawmaker said the aim was to provide for rehabilitation of delinquent children and provide comprehensive definition for services, stakeholders, children or wards as captured in the existing Act. According to her, this will be done by providing a role for community based organisations in the development of basic education in states and local governme...
