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Showing posts from January, 2023

Petrol: Let’s bite the bullet

 When the Department of State Security (DSS) early last December issued a 48-hour ultimatum to downstream petroleum sector operators to normalise fuel supply to the public, it apparently thought they had a handle on what it takes to do just that. Indications have shown, however, that they didn’t; and whereas they postured as if what DSS said was doable, the situation is far more complicated. And so, eight weeks after the ultimatum, product scarcity persists.  The secret police suspected the persistent scarcity of premium motor spirit across the country was an invidious orchestration and only stopped short of shouting, ‘Sabotage!’ It called industry stakeholders including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depots and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN), Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Petroleum Tanker Driver

Olufon: crusader in ‘learned’ robes

Every profession has icons in diverse moulds. In legal advocacy, people are more familiar with icons as civil / human rights and constitutional lawyers. But there is a reputed practitioner who stands distinguished in the application of the principles of Law to advance the cause of the Christian faith he espouses. Barrister Wole Olufon, who has served the legal profession in different capacities including as officer and member of the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); Member, Council of Legal Education and Honourable Member, Body of Benchers, holds the ace as one who has used his legal practice to wage crusades against forces ranged against clients that embody his spiritual convictions. He does this most times for the sheer conviction, more than for the legal fees; and he has been quite lucky with getting Heaven’s help for desired results from these crusades. Early in his career, Olufon waged a highly controversial case to defend clients that included th

Who killed Iluobe?

Conflicting narratives about the gruesome killing of a medical doctor in Delta State on New Year eve raise questions about the thoroughness of police investigation and possible motivating factors behind the enterprise of crime in Nigeria. But the nut of this murder must be cracked earnestly if only to inform the design of the country’s security architecture as could prevent future reoccurrence, besides getting justice for the slain doctor’s family and associates. Dr. Uyi Iluobe was the medical director of Olivet Clinic, a private hospital he ran in Oghareki, Ethiope-West council area of Delta State, and was gunned down by yet-to-be identified / apprehended assailants on 29th December, 2022. The circumstance of the killing is, however, in dispute between the late doctor’s colleagues and the Delta State Police Command that is hunting the killers. Even the facts of the incident are foggy. It was initially reported the dastardly act occurred on 31st December, whereas later reports put the