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Growing Concerns Over Sealed Plateau State House of Assembly by Police

Published

3 years ago

April 27, 2023

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The ruling All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party have slammed the Plateau State Police Command over the continuous sealing of the State Assembly complex

They condemned the police for barring the state legislators’ access to perform their duties following the sealing off of the Assembly complex.

The parties which spoke to newsmen in separate interviews in Jos, the state capital, accused the police of working to destroy democracy in Plateau State and demanded the unsealing of the State House of Assembly to allow legislators to perform their functions.

For the past three weeks, the Plateau State House of Assembly had remained under lock and key at the instance of the police high command whose personnel manned the assembly complex daily.

The police had said its action was on the need to maintain law and order in the wake of the latest leadership crisis rocking the Assembly

over who should be recognized as the authentic Speaker between Ayuba Abok, who represents Jos East Constituency and Yakubu Sanda, who represents Pengana Constituency.

Lawmakers have not conducted plenary elections since the police took over the state legislature as they were barred from the Assembly complex.

But the State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, John Akans, on Wednesday said it was unbelievable that the police could wake up and stop the functions of another arm of government without recourse to the law, describing it as unconstitutional, reprehensible, abuse of power and brazen show of partisanship.

He said, “As a party, we are monitoring the situation with keen interest. We are made to understand that the state Commissioner of Police has taken sides with the state government to seal the Assembly for no justifiable reason.

“We are consulting with our lawyers to know where the Commissioner of Police derives his powers to stop the function of another arm of the government which is the legislature. He should explain to the Plateau people why he has chosen to destroy democratic practice in the state. Ordinarily, the CP has no constitutional right to do that because what is available to us as a party is a declaratory judgement reinstating Rt Honourable Abok Ayuba as the legitimate Speaker of the State Assembly.

“There is no other judgement setting aside that judgement. Let him produce it if he has a contrary judgement. So, we know the judgement still exists and notice of appeal, if any, is not the same as a stay of execution. And even at that, Abok had already resumed office immediately after the judgement. So, the Commissioner of Police owes the people of Plateau State an explanation why he should continue to seal the state Assembly even when there is no crisis at all. He should reopen the place to enable lawmakers to perform their duties without further delay”.

Similarly, the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Sylvanus Namang, berated the police for sealing the Assembly complex and asked for the immediate unsealing of the Plateau Assembly without further delay to enable the lawmakers to perform their constitutional duties.

Namang said, “What is happening at the Plateau Assembly is unfair to the people. Our position as a party is that the State Assembly should be unsealed by the police. Does it mean that anyone can issue a threat and you lock the place?

“The action of the police is not telling well about the state. But as far as we are concerned, Rt Honourable Yakubu Sanda is the authentic Speaker of the State Assembly and will remain so until the end of their tenure in June. We expect the police to know who is not the Speaker and allow the lawmakers to perform their duties. So, we are appealing to the police to once again unseal the Assembly complex and protect those who are ready to do their work as lawmakers”.

The police were yet to react to enquiries following the lawmakers’ demand.

But when contacted, the police insisted that its continued stay at the Assembly was for the good of the state

The spokesman for the police command, DSP Alfred Alabo said, “Let them (APC and PDP) say whatever they want but as far as we are concerned, our presence at the State House of Assembly is purely for security reasons.

“We are there to prevent a breakdown of law and order and nothing else “

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ICPC Secures 24-Year Jail Term for Dismissed NECO Staff Over Certificate Forgery

Published

31 minutes ago

April 22, 2026

Preport

BY SUNDAY SAMUEL—The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has secured the conviction of a dismissed staff member of the National Examinations Council (NECO), Abdulwahab Sule, for offences bordering on certificate forgery and related corrupt practices.

The conviction was delivered by the High Court of Niger State sitting in Minna, presided over by Honourable Justice Abdullahi Mikailu, in Charge No: NSHC/ICPC/1C/2023.

Mr. Sule, who was dismissed from NECO in 2020 following the discovery of irregularities in his credentials, was found guilty on a three-count charge of dishonestly using a forged document as genuine, possession of a forged document, and making false statements.

Investigations by the ICPC revealed that the convict fraudulently used a forged Diploma certificate purportedly issued by the Federal University of Technology, Yola (now Modibbo Adama University, Yola) to secure employment with NECO in January 2009, where he remained until his dismissal in September 2020.

Further findings showed that the certificate, dated March 18, 2008, did not emanate from the institution, as confirmed by the university during verification.

The Commission also established that the convict had not completed his studies and still had outstanding courses at the time he claimed to have graduated.

In addition, Mr. Sule was found to have knowingly made false representations to NECO’s Director of Human Resource Management in August 2020, falsely claiming that he had obtained the Diploma certificate.

During ICPC’s investigation, the convict admitted that he did not complete his studies and disclosed that he paid the sum of N30,000 to procure the forged certificate from an individual.

Upon conviction, the Court sentenced him to twelve (12) years imprisonment on Count One, ten (10) years on Count Two, and two (2) years on Count Three. The sentences are to run concurrently, meaning he will effectively spend twelve (12) years in prison.

The ICPC reiterates its commitment to sanitising public institutions and warns that individuals who engage in forgery, falsification of records, and other corrupt practices will be brought to justice.

The Commission also urges organisations to sustain regular verification of staff credentials to prevent similar occurrences and strengthen institutional integrity.

The post ICPC Secures 24-Year Jail Term for Dismissed NECO Staff Over Certificate Forgery appeared first on Business Today NG.

News

SpaceX is working with Cursor and has an option to buy the startup for $60 billion

Published

1 hour ago

April 21, 2026

Preport

SpaceX said it has struck a deal with Cursor to develop a next generation “coding and knowledge work AI,” which includes a surprising provision—an option to buy the popular software development platform for $60 billion later this year.

Partnering with and potentially purchasing a leader in the hottest AI product category can only be seen in the context of SpaceX’s much-anticipated public offering. Investors seeking more value in the IPO might see its engagement with Cursor as another way to extract value from Elon Musk’s increasingly sprawling tech conglomerate.

The deal won’t shock those who follow the industry closely. Last week, it was reported that xAI would begin renting computing power from its data centers to Cursor, with the coding startup using tens of thousands of xAI chips to train its latest AI model. And last month, two of Cursor’s most senior engineering leaders, Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg, left the company to join xAI, where both report directly to Musk.

SpaceX described the partnership as a project combining Cursor’s “product and distribution to expert software engineers” with SpaceX’s Colossus supercomputer, which the company claims has the equivalent compute power of a million Nvidia H100 chips.

SpaceX also said that at some undisclosed point later this year, it will either pay Cursor $10 billion for its work or acquire the company for $60 billion. Last week, TechCrunch reported that Cursor was eying a $50 billion valuation in an upcoming private fundraising round. That figure itself reflects an astonishing series of leaps. Cursor was valued at just $2.5 billion in January of last year, climbed to $9 billion by last May May, and was assigned a $29.3 billion post-money valuation when it closed on $2.3 billion in Series D funding in November.

Either figure would represent a significant expense for SpaceX, which is widely seen to be losing money following the acquisition of xAI and the social media network X and is planning extensive capital investment. The brief statement did not say if either deal could be paid in SpaceX stock.

In the meantime, the move could shore up weaknesses at each company, but it also reveals them. Neither Cursor nor xAI has proprietary models that can match the leading offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI — the same companies now competing directly with Cursor for the developer market.

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Cursor still uses and sells access to Claude and GPT models even as both firms roll out their own coding tools, an awkward arrangement that this new SpaceX partnership may be designed to eventually escape.

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