Suspected peeping Toms fall through bathroom ceiling

DULUTH, Ga., April 30 (UPI) -- Police in Georgia said two men accused of trying to spy on women in a movie theater restroom were busted when they fell through the ceiling.
Gwinnett County police said the manager of Venture Value Cinema in Duluth told officers he suspects the men climbed into the ceiling in the men's restroom and then crawled over to the women's room, where they fell through the ceiling, WSB-TV, Atlanta, reported Monday.
The arrest report said the men were "invading the privacy" of multiple customers.
Eduard Petrovich Kovynev, 26, and Eduard Alexander Kovynev, 27, were charged with peeping Tom and criminal damage to property. They were released on bond.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News

$4,095 Scam: EFCC Insist Hembe And Azubogu Have Case To Answer

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has told a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Apo, Abuja and presided over by Justice Peter Kekemeke, to disregard the no-case submission by Honourable Herman Hembe, former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and his deputy, Honourable Chris Azubogu, insisting that the federal lawmakers have a case to answers in the $4,095 dollars estacode scam.

At the resumed hearing of the case on Tuesday April 30, 2013 EFCC counsel, Chile Okoroma observed that the arguments canvassed by defence counsel in support of their applications are immaterial at this point; stressing that the fundamental issue remains that a prima facie case have been established against the defendants to warrant explanation from them before the court.

 He said, from available indications, the accused were deceptive which amounts to dishonesty and punishable under the relevant laws. He therefore urged the court to refuse the application. 

Earlier, counsel to the accused persons, J.S Okutepa, SAN and Onyenchi Ikpeazu, SAN while moving their separate motions for no case submission contended that estacode is money meant for a public servant who travels overseas. They said once the money is approved and the officer embarks on the journey, the money becomes his.

The duo of Hembe, and Azubogu are being prosecuted by the EFCC for allegedly converting the sum of $4,095 dollars paid to them as estacode for a conference in Dominican Republic, which they failed to attend; thereby committing an offence contrary to section 308 of the Penal Code Act Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1990. 

After listening to arguments from both sides, the presiding judge adjourned ruling to June 19, 2013

Shun Corruption, Lamorde Charges Accountants

The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde has charged accountants and auditors to shun corruption and take up the gauntlet in the fight against corruption. Lamorde made this call at a national workshop on anti-corruption organized by the Chartered Institute of Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, at Akwa, Anambra State.  

Lamorde who was represented by Osita Nwajah, acting deputy director, Public Affairs said corruption was the bane of Nigeria’s development and that accountants and auditors should be the first line of defence against corruption. He stated that if corruption must be exterminated, all hands must be on deck to fight the social malaise.  He lamented the situation where Nigeria is ranked high in the corruption perception index.

Nwajah also told the gathering that their actions and reactions to commission of a crime, their ability or inability to do a thorough check on the books of companies or offices could be a clog in the fight against corruption. He challenged them to take ownership of the fight by dealing with corruption without sentiment.

Adedoyin Idowu Owolabi, the 48^th president of ICAN in his keynote address, observed that the institute had hosted several anti-corruption workshops as their contribution to the fight against corruption and nation building. “This workshop, like previous ones, is designed not only to beam searchlight on a core aspect of the Nigerian economy considered germane to the building of the nation of our dream but also to reaffirm our position that the task of nation building is a collective responsibility”.

He declared that the theme of the workshop, “Enhancing Economic Growth through Anti-Corruption Measures” was chosen “to assess and evaluate not only the way and manner corruption has impacted negatively on the Nigerian economy in the form of unbridled larceny and criminal diversion to private use, of scarce public funds generated from local and international sources, but also to contribute towards the on-going debate on the way forward for the country”.  

The president called on ICAN members to embrace the fight against corruption as it remains a challenge not only to Chartered Accountants, but also External Auditor who examines books of accounts of companies, institutions and organizations.

He warned that any member found to be involved in any act of corruption would be dealt with.  

Governor Peter Obi, who was the host governor, said he was particularly delighted with the issue of discourse. Governor Obi enumerated the different ways corruption is celebrated in the country especially among the political elites and their supporters. He said “everyone must be subjected to checks and balances in order to achieve the best.”

Other papers presented at the workshop were “The Role of Chartered Accountants in Curbing Corruption in Nigeria” by Barnabas Achaka, Plateau State Auditor-General; “An Overview of the ICPC Act, the EFCC Act, the Money Laundering Act and the Code of Conduct Bureau Act: Enforcement and the Role of Chartered Accountants” by Prof. Taiwo Osipitan and  “The Global Dimension of Corruption and Nigeria’s Economic Growth” by Ekpo Nta, Chairman ICPC, who was represented by Adebayo Kayode.

N36bn Fraud: Court Summons Rep Over Turaki’s Absence from Trial

Following the failure of former governor of Jigawa State, Saminu Turaki to attend his trial in the N36billion case of theft and money laundering instituted against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Justice S. Yahuza of the Federal High Court, Dutse has summoned his surety, Honourable Abubakar Bawa Bwari, a serving member of the House of Representatives to appear before him on May 16, 2013, “ to show cause why the recognizance entered into by him to produce the accused should not be forfeited”

Part of the notice, which was on Tuesday April 30, 2013 pasted on the house of Hon. Bwari, at the Apo Legislative Quarters, read: “Take notice that you are hereby summoned to appear at the Federal High Court, sitting at Dutse Judicial Division on the 16^th day of May 2013 at 9.00am. You are to show cause why the recognizance entered into by you to produce the accused in the above-mentioned charge should not be forfeited.”

Turaki was first arraigned by the EFCC before the Federal Capital Territory High Court in 2007 on a 32-count charge. The case was later transferred to Federal High Court; Dutse after he challenged the jurisdiction of the FCT court. He was subsequently re-arraigned on a 32- count charge at the Federal High Court, Dutse for allegedly misappropriating N36 billion while he was governor of  Jigawa State.

 Turaki had pleaded not guilty to the charge and was subsequently granted bail with Hon. Bwari serving as one of his sureties.

N1.4 Bn Subsidy Scam: You Must Face Trial, Court Tells Accused Persons

The coast is now clear for the arraignment of Helyn Aninye, Chizobam Ben-Okafor and Pon-Specialized Services Limited as Justice Olusumbo Goodluck of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Jabi, Abuja  on Tuesday April 30, 2013 struck out their application asking the court to decline granting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission leave to arraign them for fraud, forgery and conspiracy to obtain the sum of  N1.413,507,951.50  ( One Billion, Four Hundred and Thirteen Million, Five Hundred and Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred and Fifty One Naira and Fifty Kobo ) from the Federal Government of Nigeria by false pretence as subsidy under the Petroleum Support Fund.

Justice Goodluck, in her ruling, affirmed that “at this stage there is no requirement to consider facts before the court; what is needed is to determine if a prima facie case against the accused persons is established.”

“I am of the view that the proof of evidence suggests elements of forgery and obtaining by false pretences and I therefore overrule the objection of the accused persons and hereby grant leave to prosecution to prefer charge against them”. Goodluck stated.

 The accused persons are said to have “on or about 3^rd day of March, 2011 at Abuja within the Jurisdiction of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with intent to defraud, conspired to obtain money under false pretence from the Federal Government of Nigeria under the Petroleum Support Fund”.

The offence, according to the charge sheet, is contrary to Section 8(a) and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act No 14 of 2006.

They were to be arraigned on November 26, 2012 but this was scuttled as their counsel, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN challenged the application of the prosecution seeking the leave of the court to prefer charges against the accused persons. He argued that the proof of evidence did not disclose any offence against the suspects and urged the court to refuse the application.

But, prosecution counsel, Steve Odiase told the court that the proof of evidence supports the 18-count information.

The case has been adjourned to May 30, 2013 for arraignment and June 11 and 12, 2013 for trial.

Teenage ‘free runner’ fighting for his life after plunging 30ft through the roof of a derelict warehouse

Jordan White, 17, fell 30ft through a warehouse roof while 'free running' - a thrill seekers sport

A teenage 'free-runner' has been left with severe head injuries after falling 30ft through the roof of a derelict warehouse.
Jordan White, 17, from Colchester, Essex, is understood to have been using the abandoned site to take part in free-running -  a thrill seekers' sport in which participants run and jump over buildings and obstacles.
Jordan is being treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, after suffering severe head injuries and several broken bones.
His parents are now keeping a bedside vigil by the critically injured teenager.
It is believed the company trying to develop the buildings where Jordan fell were waiting for permission to demolish them after a fire broke out on site just the day before Jordan fell.
Father Kevin Grant, speaking from his bedside, said: 'I live near where it happened and his friend came running to get me. 
'When I got there I found him lying on the ground. 
'All the ambulance and air ambulance staff were terrific. They were there within ten minutes and you couldn't ask for more or fault their level of commitment.
'It is a terrible thing to have happened and I am just trying to be here for everybody until I get the chance to express my feelings.'
Jordan, a student at Colchester Sixth Form College, fell 30ft from the warehouse at Rowhedge Wharf, close to his home.
Mr Grant, who is at the hospital with Jordan's mother Mary, thanked people who have expressed their love for Jordan by phone, text and social media sites. 
He said: 'I have been onto his sites thanking everyone for all their kind messages. It is a comfort to know he has so many friends.'

It is believed the company trying to develop the buildings where Jordan fell were waiting for permission to demolish them after a fire broke out on site just the day before Jordan fell

Essex Police said they were urging children and teenagers to stay away from the disused warehouses because of the dangers on the site

Isaac Herbert, 16, from Rowhedge, was one of the first people on the scene when Jordan plunged through the roof on Friday.
He said: 'I got a call from a friend who said he had fallen through and I raced down to get his dad and we drove to the site. 
'His dad was comforting him but he was unconscious and couldn't do anything. 
'The paramedics were great.'
Isaac described Jordan as funny and charming, and said nobody has a bad word to say about him. 
He said: 'We are all keeping our fingers crossed.
'I am putting together a book with everyone saying what he means to them so I can give it to him when I see him.
'I don't think the friends who saw him fall will ever get over it.  All my thoughts are with his family. He is like a big brother and my mum says he is one of the family.' 
A spokesman for Essex Police said they were urging children and teenagers to stay away from the disused warehouses because of the dangers on the site.
Firefighters were called to a blaze at the derelict warehouses on Rowhedge Wharf on Thursday night.
The next day, Jordan fell through the roof of one of the buildings.
Mr Grant and Mike Lilley, borough councillor for Rowhedge, have asked why the site was not more secure.

Jordan was free-running, a thrill seekers' sport in which participants run and jump over buildings and obstacles

Friends have described Jordan as funny and charming, and said nobody has a bad word to say about him

Jonathan Hills, managing director of Hills Building Group, which wants to develop the site, said: 'It is very difficult to stop people getting access to the site because there is a footpath running through it and all around the side. 
'We are in the process of trying to get the buildings demolished but there is an ecology study that has to be completed before we can get planning permission to tear it down.'
He warned people not to enter the building, and added: 'Tresspassing on land and running across roofs is a risk they are taking. 
'It is absolutely an tragedy and we will get the buildings down as quickly as we can, but it could be two to three months.'
Mr Lilley has contacted Colchester Council's planning enforcement team to see if they can do anything. 
Jim Howes, who runs the Flight Freerunning Association in Essex and Hertfordshire, has offered advice on how to take up the sport safely.
He said: 'I have been doing it about eight years and when I first started it was on the streets and wherever you could find. 
'But now there are classes set up all over and Parkour parks all over the place.
'My advice is now there are more places to practise and learn how to control your body before jumping or running across roofs if that is what you want to do.'

DAILYMAIL

Bangladesh factory death toll could reach 1,400: Primark says it will compensate families of killed and injured

The death toll from the factory building collapse in Bangladesh could reach as much as 1,400, it emerged today.As many as 900 workers are still missing six days after the reinforced concrete of Rana Plaza in Savar, near Dhaka, crumbled around them.
Around 3,000 workers - mainly young women who made cheap clothes for the likes of Primark and Matalan - had gone to work in the eight-storey building last Wednesday morning, despite huge cracks appearing in the walls the day before.

Clearing the rubble: Rescue workers use heavy machinery to clear the wreckage of the eight-storey Rana Plaza, where the death toll is expected to leap as high as 1,400 as they discover bodies trapped inside

Grim search: Around 3,000 workers - mainly young women - had gone to work in the eight-storey building last Wednesday morning, despite huge cracks appearing in the walls the day before

The official death toll is at least 386, but that number is expected to be upgraded sharply as authorities take into account those who they believe remain trapped, dead beneath the rubble.
Police have been given 15 days to quiz the building's owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front, who was arrested on Sunday as he tried to flee to India.
Officers from Bangladesh's elite Rapid Action Battalion seized Rana in the Bangladesh border town of Benapole. He is being held on charges of negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work.

His father, Abdul Khaleque, was also arrested on suspicion of aiding Rana to force people to work in a dangerous building.
Emergency workers hauling large concrete slabs from the scene of the catastrophe - Bangladesh's worst ever industrial accident - said today they expect to find many dead bodies when they reach the ground floor.
Hundreds of bystanders remain at the site, waiting for news of missing relatives, holding their pictures and identity cards as they watch cranes lifting sections of ceilings and floors from the rubble.
Emergency workers in hard hats used drilling and cutting machines to break up the slabs into manageable pieces.

Property tycoon Sohel Rana was arrested by Bangladesh police while apparently trying to flee the country over the collapse of the Primark garment factory

Mahmud Ali of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society said many more bodies are believed trapped under the rubble of the building, judging by stench of decomposing flesh.
Ratna Akhtar, looking for her husband at a nearby school ground turned makeshift morgue, cried: 'Give me my husband back. At least I want to see his dead body if not alive.'
The eight storeys of the illegally constructed Rana Plaza collapsed in a heap last Wednesday, trapping thousands of workers from five garment factories inside.
The collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit Bangladesh's garment industry, which is worth £13billion a year and supplies High Street retailers throughout the West.
Bosses at high street giant Primark have said they will pay compensation to the families of their workers who were killed and injured in the accident.
The budget clothing chain occupied a floor of the eight-storey building, and some of the workers injured and killed in the incident worked for a company that supplied the brand.

Still working through the night: Emergency workers hauling large concrete slabs from the scene of the catastrophe said today they expect to find many dead bodies when they reach the ground floor

Catastrophe: The eight storeys of the illegally constructed Rana Plaza collapsed in a heap last Wednesday, trapping thousands of workers from five garment factories inside

Roughly 2,900 workers have been accounted for so far - about 2,500 survivors and the 386 dead. It is not clear how many people worked in other offices in the building which also housed a bank and many shops.
Brigadier General Ali Ahmed Khan, chief of the fire brigade at the scene, said there was now little hope of finding anyone else alive.
'Our men went inside and saw some dead bodies in the ground floor. But no one was seen alive,' he said.
In another sign no more survivors are expected, the waiting ambulances that had rushed the rescued to hospitals since the start of the disaster are now gone.

Police say as many as 900 people are still missing in the aftermath of the collapse. This woman is one of nine survivors who were pulled from the rubble yesterday

Hope: A survivor is carried into an ambulance while surrounded by onlookers, after being rescued from the garment factory building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh

Rana, the building's owner, was yesterday brought to the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrates' Court in a bullet-proof vest, and led away to an unknown detention place after the magistrate granted a police request to hold him longer before filing formal charges.
The crimes he is accused of carry a maximum punishment of seven years. More charges could be added later.
Rana had permission to build a five-storey building but added three more floors illegally. Huge cracks had appeared in the building on April 23 but Rana told tenants it was safe to go in.

PRIMARK PROMISES COMPENSATION

Bosses at high street giant Primark have said they will pay compensation to the families of their workers involved in the Bangladesh building collapse that took the lives of 400 people.

The budget clothing chain occupied a floor of the eight-storey building, and some of the workers injured and killed in the incident worked for a company that supplied the brand.

In a statement released on its website, a Primark spokesman said: 'Primark's team in Bangladesh has been working to put in place immediate and long-term help for victims of this disaster.

'We have partnered with a local NGO to address the immediate needs of victims, including the provision of emergency food aid to families. This initiative began in Bangladesh immediately (when) the extent of the disaster became clear.

'Primark will also pay compensation to the victims of this disaster who worked for its supplier. This will include the provision of long-term aid for children who have lost parents, financial aid for those injured and payments to the families of the deceased.'

Primark said it would be 'reviewing our commitments constantly' to ensure they meet the needs of the victims, and also urged other retailers who used suppliers based in the building to offer assistance.

Ruth Tanner, campaigns and policy director at the anti-poverty charity War on Want, said: 'If UK high street chains like Primark had put in place proper measures to ensure the workers who make their clothes are safe, these deaths could have been avoided.

'While Primark has taken some responsibility, the retailer and the other companies involved must pay full compensation, including loss of earnings, sign the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Agreement and ensure such a disaster never happens again.'

A bank and some first-floor shops closed after police ordered an evacuation. But managers of the garment factories on the upper floors told workers to continue their shifts.
Police have also arrested four owners of three factories.
The death toll in last Wednesday's collapse has already surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.
'I think it is a wakeup call for the nation, a wakeup call for the industry and for the trade unions,' said Shirin Akter, president of Karmojibi Nari, a Dhaka-based group that lobbies for the rights of women at work.
Hundreds of angry workers poured into the streets in the Dhaka suburb of Ashulia and set fire to an ambulance yesterday, the Independent TV network reported. They also tried to set fire to a factory, it said.
The authorities shut down all garment factories in the Ashulia and Gazipur industrial suburbs, including one that had reportedly developed cracks and was evacuated earlier.
Bangladesh's garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
Primark has acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza. It said in a statement yesterday that it is providing emergency aid and will pay compensation to victims who worked for its supplier.
'Primark notes the fact that its supplier shared the building with those of other retailers. We are fully aware of our responsibility. We urge these other retailers to come forward and offer assistance,' it said.
Canadian company Loblaw, which also got its Joe Fresh clothing line made in Rana Plaza, said it will ensure that victims and their families 'receive benefits now and in the future.'
Spokesman Julija Hunter said the company is still working out the details, but plans to deliver support 'in the best and most meaningful way possible.'
Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorised to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorised production.

DAILYMAIL

Desperate fruit machine addict, 24, stole £30,000 of his mother's jewellery to pay off gambling debts before discovering she was dying of cancer

Gambling addict: Lee Ellis, 24, pinched his mother's beloved rings and necklaces to repay money he borrowed to fuel his out-of-control addiction

A fruit machine addict stole £30,000 of his mother's jewellery to pay off his gambling debts before owning up when he found out she was dying of cancer.
Lee Ellis, 24, pinched his mother's beloved rings and necklaces to repay money he borrowed to fuel his out-of-control addiction.
Ridden with guilt, Ellis handed himself in to police after confessing the theft to his devastated mother.
The turning point came when he was stunned to discover she had been struck down by terminal cancer.
Ellis, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, has now opened his heart about his gambling hell after he was spared prison by Ipswich magistrates.
And he issued a warning as he battles to rebuild his shattered relationship with his family to others sucked in by the lure of winning huge windfalls on fruit machines.
'I feel embarrassed and very remorseful. I love my family with all my heart,' he said. 'This is what addiction does to you.'
Ellis admitted one count of theft and three fraud offences. He plundered jewellery worth about £30,000 from his mother, who's also a grandmother and wasn't named, between August 1 and September 28 last year.
The fraud charges related to the gambler pawning the gems to Christopher Boreham Jewellers in Felixstowe.
Lesla Small, prosecuting, told the court Ellis gave himself up at his local police station in January. Ms Small said he admitted taking his mother's jewellery from a wardrobe in her bedroom.
He pocketed just £2,000 to pay off his gambling debts and then hoped to buy his mother's pride and joy back six months later.

But depressed and frightened, Ellis could not do that as he became unemployed.
The court heard his mother, who wept with shame as Ellis told her what he had done, had hoped to leave her treasured jewellery to her grand-daughter.
Ian Duckworth, defending, said she had responded well to treatment and Ellis had become her carer as his father works six days a week.
Mr Duckworth told JPs: 'It's a sad case all round. His parents are clearly supportive. Mum's very distressed. They are building bridges - not easy in the light of all that's gone on.'

Ellis, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, appeared at Ipswich Magistrates' Court where he admitted the charges

Ellis was given a 10-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months. He was banned from all bookmakers in Suffolk and ordered to go on a thinking skills programme and pay £85 costs.
Today, Ellis confessed it took just three weeks to become addicted to slot machines offering the lure of big payouts.
Jobless Ellis said: 'I feel embarrassed and very remorseful. I love my family with all my heart. This is what addiction does to you.
'You don't think about anyone else but yourself when you are addicted. All you worry about is money. I love my mum with all my heart. She is my best friend. I love her so much.'
He added: 'We are getting on quite well now. I am her carer and we are slowly building up our relationship. She has forgiven me. My family are forgiving me very slowly.'
Ellis said he wept when he admitted his betrayal to his mother.

'I feel completely awful for everything. I have got an addiction and stay clear of fruit machines now. It's a mug's game, an absolute mug's game'

Lee Ellis, 24

'I broke down in tears. I felt disgraced. I felt the worst I have ever felt in my life telling the person I loved the most what I had done,' he said.
'I told her I had an addiction and I needed help. It was the hardest thing I have every done in my life.'
Ellis began going into bookmakers a few years ago with friends but said his problems began to spiral when he became hooked on fruit machines a year ago.
'I started getting more serious when a friend picked up a pretty heavy addiction. I watched him and got into gambling.
'I started to gamble quite a lot, using any money I could get when I was working. It was the lights on the machine that were attractive.
'You think it is easy and then you find out it's not. Then you go chasing your money,' said Ellis. 'It's the worst thing you can do. That's what they (the bookmakers) want you to do.
'The compulsion happened at an alarming rate ' after about three weeks.'
As his debts mounted so did the psychological effects of being hooked. He borrowed money from friends which he could not pay back.
Ellis said the pressure eventually led to him stealing from his own mother so he could pay back his mates.
But he insisted that when he did so he did not know she was ill and had every intention of returning the jewellery before she noticed it had gone.
'I was chasing something that was never there. It was panic, fear, humiliation and depression. When you gamble you get depressed pretty easily. It's a very lonely place,' said Ellis.
'I feel completely awful for everything. I have got an addiction and stay clear of fruit machines now. It's a mug's game, an absolute mug's game.
'The bookmakers want you to leave with nothing but your shorts. The idea is they take everything you have got.'

DAILYMAIL

Council orders homeowner to repaint her pretty 17th century listed cottage ... because it's TOO PINK

The owners of a pretty 17th century cottage have been threatened with court by their 'jobsworth' local council after planners decided they had made it too pink.
Ann Kennedy is upset after officers knocked on her door to say she should have applied for planning permission to paint her Grade II listed thatched cottage in the idyllic Devon countryside.
Mrs Kennedy and her husband Mark say the cottage in Kennford is exactly the same colour as it was when they bought it in 2001, and called the council's actions a 'waste of money'.

Upset: Ann Kennedy in front of her listed cottage in Devon, which the local council say is too pink

Any different? Ann's daughter Hollie stands in front of the cottage 12 years ago, when the family moved in. They claim it looks no different today

The couple say that Teignbridge District Council in Devon have threatened legal action after a single complaint about the shade of paint used on Lantern Cottage, which they say should be lighter.
Pink is a common colour on houses of this age and type all over the UK.
'This has been going on for 18 months. Other residents around us all had their paintwork done and it made ours look shabby, Mrs Kennedy said.

'So we spent nearly £1,000 renewing our paintwork in the same colour, pink.

Particulars: The Kennedys are using the details of their 2001 purchase as evidence to back their claims it looks no different

'We have been living here 12 years so we renewed the paintwork. But before the paint had even dried we had someone from the council come round to say they did not like the colour and that we needed planning permission.
'I have pictures of the cottage painted in pink when we moved in and on the estate agent's details.
'Just one person has complained. He does not live within viewing distance of the house and has to physically walk around just to see it.
'Then I received a letter from Teignbridge Council saying I had to apply for planning permission.
'I have now put in planning permission for pink. It is certainly not a shocking pink, it is a bit lighter than before. I am devastated and heartbroken by what has happened,' said the retired dance teacher.
The council has the power to make them paint it again if they are still unhappy, which could be another shade of pink.
The Kennedy family say the three bedroom cottage was pink when they bought it for £130,000 12 years ago and took photos of it at the time which prove it is still the same colour.
They have received backing from local Lib Dem councillor Alan Connett, who has intervened on their behalf.
'I think the council is demonstrating the worst of being a Jobsworth,' he said.
'Mrs Kennedy is being put through the bureaucratic mangle because she painted her cottage the same colour.
'Teignbridge Council had just one complaint and the parish council raised no objection at all.
'Council officers could be spending their time chasing really serious planning breaches and protecting listed buildings in real danger.'

Row: There has been one complaint about the colour of the house is Kennford, Devon (pictured), and the council has taken that on towards court

But council bosses say they are following a standard procedure.
A Teignbridge District Council spokeswoman said: 'In November 2011 we received a formal complaint regarding the colour of the Grade II listed cottage in Kennford. Our planning and conservation officers visited and carried out a site inspection.
'We advised the owner that Listed Building Consent (LBC) was required. This is needed before any alterations are made to listed buildings that affect its character or appearance. We also advised that enforcement action could be taken if an application was not received of the alteration was not reversed.
'A retrospective LBC application was lodged on April 23. The application will now go through the usual planning procedures and will be open to comments from everyone, including people living nearby, statutory consultees and anyone else who may wish to put forward a view. A decision is due to be made in June.'
DAILYMAIL

Two prisoners escape after gang of five wearing balaclavas smash car into their van 'on way to court'

Two prisoners were today on the run after escaping from custody when a prison van was attacked.
Five men wearing balaclavas ambushed the van at 9am and witnesses reported seeing them running away from the vehicle on Regent Road in Salford, Greater Manchester, with its windows smashed.
One man was then seen without a helmet on the back of a motorbike as it left the scene at high speed - and five men were spotted running to a nearby parked car before driving off.

Investigation: The GEOAmey prison van was on Regent Road with its side door open and glass all over the road

A large number of police officers were sent to the scene after reports that two men had escaped.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing a green car drive across the carriageway of the road before smashing into the side of the white van, before a group of men ran into the nearby Ordsall estate.
One said: ‘I crossed the road and saw a dark green car with three men in it. They had balaclavas on. I thought it was a bit strange and walked past and kept looking back to see what the car was doing.
‘I then saw it pull across the road straight into the side of the transit van and (the men) smashed the windscreens. I kept walking and called the police and I could hear the smashing of screens.

Attack: Shortly after 9am, police were called to Regent Road (file picture) in Salford, Greater Manchester

‘I looked back because I'd heard some more shouts and there were some men running towards me so I just sprinted as fast I could into the estate. I was pretty scared, to be honest.’

'There were some men running towards me so I just sprinted as fast I could. I was pretty scared'

Eyewitness

One eyewitness described how the GEOAmey prison van was on the Manchester-bound carriageway of Regent Road, with its side door open and glass all over the road.
About 150 yards further along the road, on the opposite carriageway, a dark-green Saab had been abandoned in the road, surrounded by a police van and a police car.
Both the prison van and the Saab were cordoned off by police tape while officers searched the area for clues. A police helicopter called India 99 could be seen hovering overhead.
There was a huge police presence in the area around Salford, including police dogs, as the hunt continued for the men who it is believed have been sprung from the van.

Location: The street is a main road into Manchester is around half a mile from the city's crown court

Two years ago: The rush-hour raid took place just off the same stretch of road as a similar attack on a prison van in July 2011, which saw Liverpool gangsters Tony Downes (left) and Kirk Bradley (right) escape

Greater Manchester Police Chief Superintendent Kevin Mulligan, said: ‘To reassure those that live nearby there is a significant police presence in the area.

'To reassure those that live nearby there is a significant police presence in the area'

Kevin Mulligan, GMP Chief Supt

‘At this stage we do not believe that there is any ongoing threat to the community and we would appeal to anyone who has any information to contact the police as soon as possible.’
The street is a main road into Manchester is around half a mile from the city's crown court and Strangeways prison. The van was believed to have been delivering prisoners to court.
The rush-hour raid was just off the same stretch of road as a similar attack on a prison van.
Liverpool gangsters Tony Downes and Kirk Bradley escaped in the ambush in July 2011 as they were being taken from Strangeways jail to their trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
DAILYMAIL

Celebrity Big Brother star 'punched and strangled his girlfriend after she refused to stay up listening to music with him'

Andrew Stone as he arrived at Hammersmith Magistrates Court 

A reality TV star who worked with Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue punched and strangled his girlfriend in a vodka fuelled rage, a court heard today.
Dancer Andrew Stone, who has appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and Pineapple Dance Studios, kicked his girlfriend out of his bed, grabbed her by the throat and tried to choke her after she refused to stay up late and listen to music.
Stone, 40, had drunk five double vodkas and coke at his flat in Marylebone, central London, when he attacked girlfriend Claudia Cersosimo in the early hours of January 30 this year.
Hammersmith Magistrates' Court heard how Miss Cersosimo, 25, was left so scared by the attack that the mere mention of Stone’s name causes an anxiety attack.
Miss Cersosimo was ill with a viral infection and trying to sleep but Stone was playing loud music and kept badgering her to answer questions about the tracks he was playing.
When the 25 year-old told him she just wanted to get to sleep Stone attacked her.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, she told the court: 'He said if I didn’t answer him he would kick me out of the bed. Then he chucked me out of the bed and I span out.

'I don’t know how it happened because it was all so fast but he was somehow at my side wrestling me out of the bed. He used his leg, I think it must have taken two goes and then I landed on the floor.
'He wrestled me onto the bed and then he pinned me down and with his hand started strangling me so I couldn’t breathe.

Andrew Stone shot to fame in 2010's Pineapple Dance Studios with Louie Spence

Andrew Stone is accused of attacking his girlfriend because she refused to listen to music with him

'He was putting quite a lot of weight down on me at the same time he pinned my arms down because I was trying to push him off me.
'I was really scared at that point, I think I was just shouting "Get off me, Get off me".'
Wearing a dark grey sparkly blazer, black suit trousers and patent black leather shoes, Stone shook his head as he listened to the evidence against him.
He claims that Miss Cerosimo's injuries were self inflicted.
Miss Cersosimo added that she screamed at Stone to get off her, but he lunged for her again and punched her.
She said: 'As he came up he punched me in my right eye, I remember starting to scream and holding my right eye.

Andrew Stone, who was on Celebrity Big Brother, denies attacking her, claiming that the injuries were self-inflicted

'I remember getting down on the floor and crawling away from the bed. He came at me again and he was holding me by the collar of the T-shirt I was wearing. He was yanking my collar it left red marks round my neck.'
Miss Cersosimo managed to kick Stone off her, and fled to the bathroom where she called the police on her mobile phone.
But she didn’t lock the door and Stone followed her to the bathroom, kicked the door open and stood in the doorway blocking her way out.
'He was more calm, but he hadn’t acknowledged what he had just done, he just said ‘get off the phone’ he was really rude and abrupt. He was still aggressive in his tone,' she said.

She managed to get to the front door where she tried to buzz the police in through the intercom but Stone twice hit the intercom phone out of her hand.
She told the court: 'Then he got my clothes and bag and stuff and threw it by the door and that is when the police entered the property.'
Following his arrest, he told police the couple had argued, and that she locked herself in the bathroom and inflicted the injuries on herself.
‘She always does that - making a big deal out of something small,’ he said.
The 25 year-old met the reality TV star in a nightclub in Covent Garden, central London, a year earlier and had been dating for a few months.
But the pair had a tempestuous relationship and Miss Cersosimo said she believed Stone was cheating on her.
Defence counsel Tyrone Smith asked Miss Cersosimo: 'You believed he was having sex with other people.'
She replied: 'Yes'.

The dancer told police that he had drank four or five double vodkas that evening

Referring to a text message Miss Cersosimo has sent to Stone Mr Smith said: 'You name a girl and you believe she was smirking at you and you believe the defendant was texting her for sex.'
Miss Cersosimo said: 'Yes, because I had seen the text messages. He kept telling me how he didn’t want to be sleeping with other girls anymore and telling me that he loved me, but the day (that text) was sent he was with her.'
She told the court: 'I knew what he was like, that was effectively cheating on me.'
Miss Cerosimo has struggled with a history of depression and self-harm and once fled to Stone’s bathroom with a kitchen knife.

The dancer has a 30 years dance experience and has performed alongside Britney Spears (left) and Kylie Minogue (right)

Prosecuting lawyers say that since the alleged attack she has been suffering from severe anxiety attacks.
Jumoke Hughes said: 'Since this she has been having severe anxiety attacks. The mere mention of the defendant’s name or seeing the defendant causes her to have serious attacks.'
Stone, denies common assault.
Originally from Kettering in Northamptonshire, Stone boasts a CV featuring 30 years’ dance experience.
He trained at the Central School of Ballet and has toured with stars including Kylie, Britney Spears, Tina Turner, and Ricky Martin.
Stone denies a single count of common assault
The case continues.

DAILYMAIL

Desperate Mother Inseminate 14 year old daughter

The girl at the centre of the child cruelty trial told the High Court she went along with her mother’s shocking attempts to get her pregnant because she thought: ‘If I do this . . . maybe she will love me more.’
The girl had been adopted as a baby and raised in a ‘toxic cocoon’ of her mother’s making – an atmosphere of intimidation and disapproval behind the closed  curtains of their terrace house.
Despite the bullying and coercion, the girl remained pathetically devoted to her adopted mother and obeyed her commands, driven by a powerful mix of fear and love.

Ordeal: The girl apparently miscarried at 14 but regularly inseminated herself with sperm bought online by her mother and later had a baby at 16 (posed by model)

In a moment of unbearable poignancy the girl, known only as A, told how she had gone along with her mother’s plans to win the woman’s affection.

She told the High Court: ‘Mum said to me, “A, the only way I can have a fourth child is for you to get pregnant”.
‘I was shocked, pretty shocked at first. And then I suddenly thought, “Maybe if I do this then everything will be over. Mum will be happy like she was before”.
‘And I also thought from a selfish point of view, “If I do this . . . maybe she will love me more”.’
A was only 13 when her mother revealed her plans, and just 14 when the humiliating and painful ordeal of the insemination  ‘programme’ began.

In March 2009, aged 15 and having already suffered a miscarriage, she sent a Mother’s Day card. The girl wrote: ‘Happy Mother’s Day List (the things I cannot give you but would if I could).’

She stuck photographs of her mother’s favourite singers and  television programmes on the card.

Below them, next to a photograph of a positive pregnancy test, she wrote: ‘And the one thing that I can. And will.’ Remarkably, A told the court hearing she was grateful to her mother for adopting her and her sisters, saying: ‘My mum has done as much as she could to give us a good and happy life.’

But Mr Justice Jackson heard  the mother had excluded her  ex-husband from her daughters’ life and had schooled them at home, leaving them isolated from the world outside.
She could be ‘critical, rigid, suspicious and obsessive’, the judge said, adding: ‘For the children, who love her deeply, the threat of her disapproval is always in the air.’

Eldest daughter A in particular had coped with her domineering mother by becoming submissive to her, even dropping her voice so she could barely be heard.
Neighbours said she was so quiet and timid that they had wondered if she had a ‘vocal disability’. Remarkably, it was only by becoming a mother herself that A found the strength to stand up to the maternal bullying she had suffered.
Midwives noticed that she refused to hand her baby son to her mother, and she rejected the woman’s demands that she call him Kalei, instead choosing a traditional English name.

Astonished: Family judge Mr Justice Jackson expressed his 'abiding sense of disbelief' in a High Court judgement

Fears for her son’s wellbeing finally drove her to confide in a family friend, an act of courage and defiance she had been unable to make on her own behalf.
A, now 19 and living in a foster home with her toddler son, told the court: ‘I was scared to go home, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to raise him as my child and I was scared at how my mum might raise him.’
Her mother, an educated and highly articulate woman, also gave the teenager recordings to listen to which contained subliminal messages, saying: ‘I am going to conceive a girl.’
The girl, who was adopted, had not wanted to become pregnant but was terrified of jeopardising hermother’s love for her.
The plan fell apart after the girl gave birth to a boy and midwives at the hospital became suspiciousof her mother’s ‘pushy and insensitive’ behaviour towards her and the baby, and raised the alarm.
The Daily Mail can reveal that social workers were warned three times about the mother, but decided her children were not at risk. On one occasion a social worker closed the case after speaking to the mother on the telephone, without even visiting the family’s home or seeing the children.
The mother, a 48-year-old former nanny, was jailed for five years for bullying her daughter into the surrogate pregnancy plan and for cruelty towards another of her adopted children.
The case raises worrying questions about the regulation of adoptions from abroad and the sale of donor sperm over the internet.
The High Court case was heard in secret but can be reported following a legal challenge by media groups.
Family Division judge Mr Justice Jackson said he felt ‘an abiding sense of disbelief that a parent could behave in such a wicked and selfish way towards a vulnerable child’.
The court heard the American-born mother, who cannot be named to protect the identities of her three adopted children and her grandson – the child born to her daughter, chose to be sterilised in 2001 so she did not pass her diabetes on to any children.

The High Court case was heard in secret but can be reported following a legal challenge by media groups

Instead, she adopted three daughters as babies from foreign orphanages and foster homes, two while married to an Irish man and a third as a single parent, and raised them in Britain.

She was banned from adopting more children but longed for another child, and forced her eldest daughter to conceive.
She told the girl about her plans when her daughter was only 13, and the two-year insemination ‘programme’ began when the teenager – identified in legal documents only as A – was 14.

The judge said: ‘A did not want to take part in the programme, but she allowed her body to be used by her mother because she loves her.
‘A’s participation in the programme caused her continuous anxiety. The physical steps that the mother asked her to take were degrading, humiliating and, on occasions, painful.’

The mother bought frozen sperm over the internet and prepared syringes full of it for her daughter to use to inseminate herself.

She was desperate that any resulting baby should be a girl, and forced her daughter to follow a special diet of dairy and alkaline foods in the belief this would affect the gender of the child.
In July 2010, the mother wrote an ‘affirmation’ on her computer, setting out her wishes for the future – a lottery win and a healthy baby girl, who she wanted to call Kelia.
She wrote: ‘I desire to win the Thunderball jackpot of £500,000 and for A to conceive and carry Kelia to term for birth in April.’ In October that year, A became pregnant and she gave birth to a son in June 2011, after a difficult labour which left her needing surgery.

Nurses knew she planned to give her baby to her mother to raise, but were worried by her mother’s aggressive behaviour, including a refusal to let A breastfeed her baby, saying: ‘We don’t want any of that attachment thing.’
Midwives raised the alarm when the mother tried to take the newborn baby from the ward, and A later confided in a family friend about her ordeal. All four children were taken into care and the mother was charged with child cruelty.
She initially denied the allegations, accusing her daughter of being a fantasist, and told authorities the girl was mentally ill. She later pleaded guilty to five charges of child cruelty.
The High Court heard she had raised her three adopted daughters in a ‘toxic cocoon’, teaching them at home so they would not go to school and isolating them from friends or neighbours.

When she was 15, A was left alone to look after her youngest sister, then only four or five, while her mother and the middle sister went to the US for a ten-day holiday.
A told the court she had seen her mother smack her youngest sister regularly, and said she had tied the little girl to a chair when she would not sit still and had stuck duct tape over her mouth for answering back.

The court also heard disturbing details about failed attempts to alert social services to the family’s set-up. Neighbours described the mother’s terrace home as like a ‘fortress’, with the curtains always closed and no one allowed inside.
In 2006, a GP neighbour contacted social services, saying she could hear the mother shouting and swearing at her youngest child, who was then two, and said the toddler was left crying for up to two hours at a time.
Social workers investigated and saw all three children and the mother, but decided there was no cause for concern. In January 2007, an anonymous letter was sent to social services and other authorities.

A social worker’s report warned that the mother ‘appears to be doing things secretively for her own gain’, but concluded there was no evidence of ‘significant harm’ to the children, and the case was closed again.
In 2008, the GP made another referral to social services. A third investigation was launched but the case was closed after social workers spoke to the mother on the telephone, without seeing the children or visiting the house.
Mr Justice Jackson said: ‘Between 2006 and 2008, the mother succeeded in keeping social services at arm’s length so that their investigations were essentially superficial.
‘Concerns were seen off by a parent who was recognised to be domineering. The children were never heard.’

The local authority cannot be named for legal reasons but its Local Safeguarding Children Board has launched a serious case review, due to be published next month.
The LSCB said: ‘Nothing can change what has happened to the children in this truly terrible case.
‘It is clear that public bodies must highlight the major public policy issues which arise from this case.’

DAILYMAIL

Jonathan wants helicopters for police commands

President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, directed  that every state police command must have helicopter for effective policing of the entire country.
The president, who announced this on the occasion of the ceremonial parade marking the 2013 Police Week, said this was the commitment of the government and that was why it set up a special fund.
He added that the idea that armed robbers would be operating for three hours at a particular place with the police being unable to do anything on it must be a thing of the past.
According to him, “my vision is to create a robust and efficient police force, well motivated to discharge  the constitutional obligations with neither fear nor favour.”
The president emphasised the need to re-train the police, stressing that “for you to remain functional in whatever you do, and especially in security services, training is very paramount. So, you must train with the equipment so that our men and women in the police force will have confidence in themselves and they will continue to operate as gallant men and women.”

He said “a good friendly police force, united  with commitment through a sense of responsibility and partnership is possible if every stakeholder, government, the citizen police leadership, officers and men work together for a common purpose. I, therefore, urge all Nigerians to lend their full support to the police.”

He said that in furtherance of the government’s determination to reposition the security sector for a more effective policing of the country, the police have daunting task of enforcing the laws, keeping the faith and protecting life and property which are vital for the well-being and development of the nation.

Also commissioning 500 patrol vehicles, five police helicopters, Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC), bomb disposal and communication equipment on the occasion, president Jonathan noted that it was natural for every nation to demand so much from the police and for the police to be effective, the government must provide what they require to work with.

“That is one of the reasons we are here today to commission some police equipment and we will continue to do more. I expect that these equipment will enhance police capability in  the prevention of crimes and deployment in emergency situations. They shall be instruments of justice and protection of all men and women of goodwill.”

The president said that one thing he would urge the police to do was maintenance, adding that as a nation, we are not too good in maintaining what we have, but currently, that aspect was improving.

In his welcome address, the Inspector General of Police, M.D Abubakar, regretted that for 37 years, when the last police week was celebrated, a veritable instrument and opportunity to strengthen the bond between the police and the public was kept in hold.

Consequently, the gap between the police and the community kept widening, as mistrust grew and the public and the police started interacting base on mutual suspicion.

TRIBUNE

Abducted family of eight found in Cameroon

• We’ve established contact with our man –Customs

The Nigeria Customs Service yesterday said it has established contact with a Lagos-based Customs officer, Mr. James Gadzama Pallam who was abducted by gunmen with seven others including his wife, five children and a cousin in a village between Adamawa and Borno states.
Speaking on telephone in Abuja, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, national public relations officer, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Headquarters, said the officer was in good condition and doing well. Daily Sun had exclusively reported that the Customs officer and his family had been missing without a trace after attending his brother’s wedding in Maiduguri, Borno State on April 7.
Daily Sun gathered that gunmen in Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) and said to be in police uniforms, intercepted the family around Firgi, a boundary town between Borno and Adamawa states on April 8.
Although Adeniyi did not say exactly where the officer was being held, he explained that the service was making frantic effort and arrangement to bring him back to re-unite with his family.  “Why did you (Daily Sun) not contact us before writing the story?
What I can tell you for now is that we have established contact with him and now making effort to bring him back to re-unite with his family,” he said. Adeniyi did not explain the type of effort being made and whether they were negotiating with the gunmen or involving other security agencies for their release.
Family sources, however, told Daily Sun that Pallam and other vitims were found in Yaounde, Cameroon Mr. Pallam’s relation, who was a former deputy speaker, Adamawa State House of Assembly, Emmanuel Tsamdu, had told Daily Sun that the incident had been reported to the police in Borno State.
SUN

Russians, Sri Lankans, others kidnapped in Bayelsa

Five expatriates abroad an oil vessel operating along the Sangana waterways in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have been abducted by sea-robbers, also operating as kidnappers.
The abducted crew members were identified as two Sri Lankans, two Russians and a Myanmar national.
The attack occurred in the notorious Brass area, where crude oil thieves, illegal oil bunkerers and kidnappers operate and pose serious security threat.
The JTF and the anti-kidnapping unit of the Bayelsa State Police Command were said to have deployed 20 gunboats to apprehend the suspected kidnappers.
Security sources said the deployment of troops and gunboats to both Southern Ijaw and Brass Local Government Areas was part of the security measures being undertaken by the Bayelsa State Government and security agencies to arrest the deteriorating security situation in the two local government areas due to activities of illegal oil bunkerers, sea-robbers and kidnappers.

SUN

Slain lecturer: Students call for panel of inquiry

Worried by the way and manner  the lecturer  of Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja,  Mr  Nathaniel Abimaje, was murdered  last weekend, the students  of the institution  have  appealed to the  state governor, Captain Idris Wada, to set up  a panel of inquiry to investigate the killing.

National Association of Ebira Students, (NAES), Kogi State Polytechnic chapter, made the appeal while reacting to insinuations that the crisis that led to the death of the senior lecturer was as a result of misunderstanding between Ebira and Igala students.

The president  of the association,  Mr Icha Anate Nathaniel, alleged  that the crisis started when an invigilator caught Ademu Ojomugwo, the Gabayidu of Igala, a student of  the Department of Public Administration, HND 11 of the institution, for examination malpractices.

He mentioned  that when he was caught, the news spread all over the  campus that somebody who supposed to lay good example for other students to emulate had been apprehended for involving in examination malpractices.

Anate  Nathaniel said some Igala students felt that it would be a shame on their side if the Gabayidu faced examination panel and the only way they could stop that was to cause violence on campus, adding that the late lecturer was among the panel to investigate those involved in the examination malpractice.

According to him, the late lecturer who happened to be an Igala by tribe,  was said to have turned down their request when he was allegedly approached by the Igala students to exonerate their Chief.

He noted that as a result of this, some Igala students went on rampage on Friday night as they allegedly attacked and killed the senior lecturer for his refusal to cooperate and also  attacked an Ebira student  who was reading in one of the lecture rooms close to where they attacked the senior lecturer.

Mr Nathaniel, therefore, on behalf of the Ebira students, urged the state government  to look into the crisis and bring to book those that killed the senior lecturer and also to disabuse the mind of the people that the crisis was not an ethnic crisis between Ebiras and Igalas but purely on examination malpractice.
TRIBUNE

FG bans illegal PGD programmes in polytechnics

THE Federal Government has banned Polytechnics in the country from illegal running of Post-Graduate Diploma (PGD) programmes.
Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, has accordingly directed the authorities of the institutions to stop the running of Post Higher National Diploma HND programmes, saying it was outside their mandate.
She gave this directive on Monday, in Abuja, while inaugurating the Governing Councils of 15 Federal Polytechnics, 19 Colleges of Education and two parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education.
This is just as the former Minister of Transport and Chairman Governing Council of Federal Polytechnic, Yaba, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, has vowed to enhance the position of Yaba College of Technology as the best higher institution in Nigeria.
Rufa’i further urged the governing councils to streamline the programmes of polytechnics and colleges of education so as to meet national and international needs and standards.
She said there was the urgent need to refocus institutional mandates of teaching, research, training, and community services in order to make tertiary education more relevant to the needs of the economy.

Professor Rufa’i said this required a critical review and implementation of the various programmes and curricula of polytechnics and Colleges of Education.

She tasked the governing councils of the institutions and boards of the agencies to devise alternative ways of generating fund and revenue outside government’s allocation, saying funding had remained a major constrain in the management of the institutions.

She said: “Another major challenge which has to be seriously addressed by the governing councils is the issue of Institutional Master Plans.

Approved Mast Plans that facilitate the development of well organised tertiary institutions with facilities in place should be strictly adhered to.”
The Minister also warned that the position of Rector/Provosts and other principal officers should not be localised but must be opened to all qualified Nigerians, irrespective of where they came from, adding that the provosts and registrars of colleges of education should sign NCE certificates as obtained in polytechnics and universities.

She challenged the councils to develop effective strategies for early detection and eradication of all forms vices such as examination malpractice, sexual harassment, extortion, inducement, loss of examination scripts and results among others.

She also decried the delay in release of original certificates to students and tasked the council members to ensure that “issuance of certificates to graduating students is a prerequisite for approvals for holding convocation,” adding, “no certificate no convocation”.

Council and management of the institutions were, however, urged to ensure immediate implementation of the external audit reports.

“You are expected to effectively implement the views of Government (White Paper) on the Visitation Panel Reports to your institutions as soon as they are available. I assure you that the federal Ministry of Education will render all needed assistance in relation to this issue whenever the need arises”, the minister tasked.

The two parastatals included National Teachers Institute (NTI) to be chaired by Barr Ali Sa’ad and Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) chaired by Dr Stephen Dike.
TRIBUNE

5 killed as gunmen attack Ringim’s residence, police station

NO fewer than five people were killed, three being policemen, as unknown gunmen attacked the residence of former Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, in Ringim, Jigawa State, on Sunday night.

Reports from the area indicated that the gunmen also attacked a police station adjacent Ringim’s residence and a branch of a bank in the area.
Findings by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that the policemen were killed when the gunmen raided the station, while two security guards of the bank were also killed.

An eyewitness told the Nigerian Tribune that after Muslim night prayers, explosions were heard from the residence of the former police boss, as gun duel ensued.

According to the witness, who sought anonymity, several explosions were heard from the area, where the house of the Minister of Education, Professor Rukayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, was also sited.

The state acting governor, Alhaji Ahmad Mahmud, who was conducted round the affected places, said the way the crime was carried out was similar to the one that happened in Gwaram Local Government, where the bank was attacked.

According to the acting governor, “the attack was purely a robbery attempt and from the brief I got, the assailants must have created a decoy to cause distraction by attacking the former IG’s residence and the police station.”

He confirmed that five people were killed in the attack.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Theophillus Kayode, said no money was stolen from the bank.

Death sentence: Lagos stalls al-Mustapha’s appeal

Hearing of the appeal  filed by Maj. Hamza al-Mustapha, sentenced to death for the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, was on Monday stalled at the Court of Appeal, Lagos due to late filing of the Lagos State Government’s opposition to the case.

This came even as the convict’s supporters again besieged the courtroom. They had also on January 30, 2012, stormed the Lagos High Court, Igbosere, when al-Mustapha and the late Kudirat’s personal aide, Lateef Shofolahan, were sentenced to death by hanging.

The supporters, comprising men and women, said prayers together for his release, after the appellate court adjourned the matter and fixed May 30 as fresh hearing date.

Al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, and Shofolahan were not present in court.

Counsel for the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Mr. Femi Adamson, on Monday, told the Chima Nweze-led appeal panel that he had just filed the respondent’s brief just before the court started sitting.

The state filed its respondent’s briefs 37 days after the expiration of the official30 days grace period.

The appeal panel accepted copies of the respondent’s brief after it granted Adamson’s application seeking “an enlargement of time” within which to file the brief.

Nweze expressed concern over the delay in filing the brief of argument, saying it was “unfair” for Adamson to be “rushing in the respondent’s brief this morning”.

Both al-Mustapha’s counsel, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN) and that of Shofolahan, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, did not oppose the state’s application for enlargement of time.

The appeal panel last February 15 had ordered al-Mustapha and Shofolahan to, within seven days, file fresh appellants’ briefs and serve the same on the state.

The panel had fixed hearing of the appeal for Monday with the expectation that the state would have responded to the appellants’ briefs within 30 days.

Daudu, subsequently withdrew an earlier application seeking the court to forgo the state’s opposition to the appeal.

Daudu had argued in the application dated March 25, 2013, that the state had lost its right to file any brief of argument having failed to do so as at March23, 2013, which made it 30days after it was served with the appellant’s brief.

Justice Mojisola Dada of the state High Court in Igbosere had, on January 30,2012, sentenced al-Mustapha and Shofolahan to death by hanging for the murder of Kudirat, who was gunned down in Lagos on June 4, 1996.

Kudirat was a wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola.

PUNCH