A mobile court in Oshodi has sentenced a man simply identified as Paul to nine months imprisonment for not using a pedestrian bridge and assaulting personnel of the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps.

According to the State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, who revealed this information through a post on his X handle on Thursday.

Wahab wrote, “Paul was apprehended on April 16 for not utilizing the pedestrian bridge at Agbado Oke Odo, during which he assaulted and injured the enforcement personnel of LAGESCOfficial (KAI).

The mobile court in Oshodi delivered a nine-month jail sentence on him.”

The Ministry recently cautioned residents about avoiding pedestrian bridges, labeling the act of pedestrians crossing major highways in the state as illegal.

According to PUNCH’s report on Tuesday, the state government apprehended and charged 76 individuals for ignoring pedestrian bridges in the Ojota, Ladipo, and Oshodi regions.

In a March report, it was mentioned that a 22-year-old woman named Fasia Ajoke was sentenced to seven months and three weeks in prison for assaulting a female LAGESC officer while on duty.

Ajoke was also found guilty of resisting arrest and refusing to use the pedestrian bridge.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has vowed to arrest the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, and bring him before the Federal High Court Abuja for arraignment to answer to the charges preferred against him.

This came on the heels of Bello’s counsel, Abdulwahab Muhammed, SAN, refusing to be served in the place of his client who is on the run from the EFCC.

The anti-graft agency, while addressing a Federal High Court, Abuja on Thursday through its team of lawyers led by Kemi Pinehero, SAN, stressed that operatives would execute the arrest warrant against the former governor even if it has to be done by the use of force.

He said, “We have to arraign him in court even if we have to use the military. Immunity is only attached to a person and not the building.

“The law allows to break down walls to arrest an evading defendant. Section 284 says all persons are to obey the service of charge.”

Details later…

Heritage Bank’s Head Office has been shut down over the sack of over 1,000 workers.

JomogNews Nigeria reports that the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE), has shut down Heritage Bank’s head office in Lagos following the sack of over 1000 personnel by the management of lender led by Mr. Akinola George-Taylor without following due process.

The union said it had resolved to continue with the picketing until the management of the bank decides to do the needful by ensuring the sacked workers get their legitimate severance package.

The aggrieved ex-staff of the bank has locked the gate and prevented anyone from going in or out of the bank’s head office located at 143 Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Recall that in October 2023, less than one year after assuming office as Heritage Bank’s chief executive officer, Mr. Akinola George-Taylor forcefully booted out over 70 senior staff members of the bank, while a number of others were asked to resign plunging the bank in further crisis. More worrisome was the fact that the affected staff were disengaged without paying them their accrued entitlements and allowances.

JomogNews Nigeria gathered that there has also been an internal crisis allegedly instigated by the bank chief in an attempt to rid the bank of those suspected to be loyalists of some board members and employ his own people. The move, sources disclosed, was unconnected with the new bank chief’s plan to oust some board members who are said to be at loggerheads with him, from the bank. The bank’s chief was said to be enjoying the support of a top shareholder of the bank whom sources say is allegedly determined to solely take over the bank and get rid of the owners.

When contacted by our reporter, Ozenna Utulu, the head of Corporate Communications of Heritage Bank promised to get back to our reporter but never did as at the time of filing this report.