Blessing Agbebaku, speaker of the Edo state house of assembly, says the three lawmakers suspended during plenary on Monday engaged in “nefarious acts”.

On May 6, the speaker announced the suspension of Donald Okogbe (PDP Akoko-Edo II), Bright Iyamu (PDP Orihonmwon south), and Adeh Isibor (PDP Esan north-east I).

Okogbe, one of the suspended lawmakers, is an ally of Philip Shaibu, former deputy governor of Edo. He was the only lawmaker who did not sign the petition that led to Shaibu’s impeachment.

Agbebaku accused the lawmakers of attempts to change the leadership of the house through diabolical and other means.

He added that the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras on the house premises exposed the spiritualist and the lawmakers who hired him.

“They are being influenced to cause chaos in this house by planning to change the leadership of this house. But to God be the glory, they were exposed,” the speaker said.

“They brought in a spiritualist into the Anthony Enahoro complex and dropped fetish items.

“They brought a herbalist into this house of assembly premises to plant some charms in the compound by 1am in the morning without knowing that the CCTV cameras will expose their nocturnal act.”

A rowdy and rancorous session ensued in the house after the speaker announced the suspension of the lawmakers, with the affected legislators accusing Agbebaku of acting “unilaterally”.

As tempers flared amid the pushing and shoving, plenary was abruptly adjourned.

The Lagos State House of Assembly has kicked against the position of the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Olukayode Egbetokun, that Nigeria is not ripe for the establishment of state police.

Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, directed the Clerk of the House, Olalekan Onafeko, to write the Inspector-General and the National Assembly stating that the state lawmakers reject Egbetokun’s position.

Recall that the IGP, represented at a recently held one-day dialogue on state policing, themed, ‘Pathways to Peace: Reimagining Policing in Nigeria,’ opposed the establishment of state police, arguing that it would increase ethnic tension and cause divided loyalty in states of the federation.

The IGP also suggested that the Federal Road Safety Corps and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps be merged with the police force.

However, speaking at plenary on Monday, Obasa, who noted that the FRSC and the NSCDC have not been able to solve the problems of accidents on roads and pipeline vandalism respectively, wondered how effective they would be if they are merged with the police force.

“In Lagos State, we have the Security Trust Fund through which successive administrations starting from that of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu have provided enormous support to the police command in Lagos State. Yet, crime of different dimensions has continued.

“This shows that no matter what Egbetokun has proffered as solution, such won’t solve our problem. The position of the IGP is unacceptable.

“We strongly believe that if we have state police, we would be able to solve the issues of crime in our nation or reduce it to the minimum.

“As we have seen in other climes, the United Kingdom has different levels of policing just like the United States of America. So why should ours be different?

“The lives of our people are very important and we must do everything possible to make sure we protect lives and property. We want to state categorically that we believe in state police and we want to urge the National Assembly to continue with its intendment to establish state police through the process of constitutional amendment,” Obasa said while praising President Tinubu for his resolve to end insecurity in the country.

Commending the Speaker for his stand on the issue of state police, the lawmaker representing Badagry Constituency 1, argued that with its current structure, it would be difficult for the Nigeria Police Force to effectively secure the country.

Also declaring his support for state police, another lawmaker, Hon. Sa’ad Olumoh (Ajeromi/Ifelodun 1), said each Nigerian state currently has a local security outfit in the semblance of state police.

“Today, which state does not have state police one way or the other? This is a cause that should be supported. For the IG to come out and say state police is not in the interest of Nigeria shows he is not considering the reality of insecurity on Nigerians,” he said.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has released an additional 531 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination results.

JAMB said the newly results were the 64,000 earlier withheld because the candidates were suspected to have committed infractions

The board disclosed this in a statement, by its spokesman, Fabian Benjamin.

The said: “As promised, the Board is proceeding with the screening of over 64,000 withheld results. It has, however, released additional 531 results taking the total number of results released to 1,842,897. In the course of the exercise, other cases of examination misconduct were also established to make a tally of 92 from the 81 initially discovered.

“The Board is also looking at cases of unverified candidates and would soon come up with a position.

“Similarly, the attention of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB) has been drawn to some fallacious publications purporting that an unknown candidate, who did not sit the Board’s 2024 UTME, obtained scores.

“This is fake, malicious and a calculated attempt to undermine the integrity of the Board. The public is urged to disregard such irresponsible publications.

“To underscore the fact that the publication is crafted by mischief makers to paint the Board in bad light, the publication, which levels such a grievous allegation, has no details of the candidate for proper verification.

“The Board is not surprised as this is the season of mischief makers, who would want to deceive gullible candidates. The examination template of the Board is designed with the highest sense of responsibility and is not an allocation platform where scores are doled out to candidates.

“It is most unfortunate that anybody could even believe such narration or that the story could even gain traction given the Board’s integrity.

“This again has gone to further vindicate the Board’s stance that candidates should desist from disclosing their classified details to third-parties.

“In investigating some of these allegations, the Board discovered that some of these mischief makers copy results sent to other candidates, edit the details sent to themselves and then parade this as emanating from the Board.

“The Board challenges any candidate, parent or anybody with such a claim or information to prove it wrong by coming forward with the details of such claims and the phone number with which such results were conveyed.

“The attitude of these mischief makers would only propel the Board to further tighten the process of checking its results to make it more personalized and sure would be stringent when it should actually be a simple and straightforward exercise.

“The Board reiterated that neither its results nor any of its processes have been compromised. Hence, it will continue to protect the integrity of its systems against such malicious actors, who are hell-bent on creating confusion where none existed.

“Consequently, the Board is primed to adding more features like registration number to the existing UTME Result checking process going forward to make it extra difficult for anybody to edit.

“Candidates are, therefore, urged to securely keep their details secure for if they are found associating with any of these mischievous elements, they would be treated as collaborators.

“For now, the method of checking the 2024 UTME remains sending UTMERESULT to 55019 or 66019 and not through any other process. The result, at the moment, is not on the Board’s website.”