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Court Dismisses Suit Challenging Oyetola as Osun APC Gov Candidate

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The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday dismissed a suit challenging the nomination of Governor Gboyega Oyetola as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the last governorship election in Osun State.

The suit was instituted by an aggrieved aspirant on the platform of the party, Kunle Adegoke, who alleged that the July 20, 2018 primary election, in which he participated alongside Oyetola and others, was marred by irregularities and non-compliance with the relevant laws and regulations.

Oyetola, had after emerging as the party’s candidate, gone ahead to win the September 22 and 27, 2018 governorship election in the state.

Dismissing the suit challenging Oyetola’s nomination as APC’s candidate for the election, Justice Inyang Ekwo ruled in his judgment on Friday that nothing was illegal or unconstitutional in the conduct of the primary by the APC as alleged by Adegoke.

The judge ruled, “On the whole, I find no illegal or unconstitutional act on the part of the 1st defendant in the conduct of the governorship primaries in Osun State that would warrant this court to intervene in what can be considered as its internal affairs either before or on July 20, 2018 when the said primary election was held.”

Adegoke, had on July 27, 2018, filed the suit marked, FHC/ABJ/ CS/804/2018, to challenge the emergence of Oyetola as APC’s governorship candidate.

The defendants in the suit were originally, the APC and the Independent National Electoral Commission, but Oyetola and his deputy, Benedict Alabi, were later joined as co-defendants.

Adegoke contended, among others in the suit, that the conduct of the APC’s primary election in Osun State violated the Constitution, the Electoral Act, 2010 and relevant provisions of the APC constitution, including the Regulation for the Conduct of Political Party Primaries of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

He said, in a supporting affidavit, that the “direct method” adopted by the party allowing all general members of the party to vote in the primary election “was a departure from the extant 2014 guidelines of the party”.

The plaintiff stated that contrary to the development in Osun State, “the indirect method of primary election was used in Edo State in 2016, Ondo State in 2016, Anambra State in 2017 and Ekiti State in May 2018”.

He added that the APC failed to notify him as an aspirant or the INEC in writing not later than 21 days to the date of the primaries, the details including the specific location and venue, date and time for the conduct of its nomination of candidate before holding same on the July 20, 2018.

He also stated that APC also failed to notify INEC in writing “the rescheduling of the purported primary election from Wednesday, the 18th day of July 2018 to Friday, the 20th day of July 2018.”

The plaintiff also alleged that the party failed to maintain “a proper and duly certified membership register for the purpose of conducting direct method of primaries”.

He also said officers of INEC “did not monitor the primary election” which held in 332 wards of Osun State on July 20, 2018, “as no reports of such elections at the ward level were prepared and submitted to the 2nd defendant (INEC)”.

He noted that he had, in an open letter, challenged the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, informing him that there was no membership register of the party by which the party could conduct a credible direct primary election.

But dismissing the suit, Justice Ekwo ruled that contrary to Adegoke’s contention, the National Working Committee of the party reserved the right to adopt either direct or indirect primary for the nomination of its candidate for the governorship election in the state.

He ruled that there was evidence showing that all governorship aspirants on the platform of the party were duly notified about the NWC’s decision to adopt direct primary ahead of the Osun State election.

The judge also ruled that Adegoke lacked the right to complain that INEC was not notified of the rescheduling of the primary within seven days.

He added that there was evidence that INEC officials monitored the primary election implying that the commission had validly waived the right of being given the seven-day notice about the rescheduling of the primary.

The judge also held that there was evidence showing that Adegoke attended the July 18, 2018 meeting where all aspirants were notified of the rescheduling of the primary to July 20.

He added that there was evidence showing that voter registers were displayed by the acting Chairman of the Electoral Committee for the APC’s primary, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, and the plaintiff was invited to apply for copies.

The judge ruled, “It is my opinion upon considering the evidence in this case that the 1st defendant (APC) acted within its power and authority vested in it in the conduct of the governorship primaries in Osun State in the circumstances of the evidence in this case.

“Far be it that primary election of a party political party would be nullified simply for the fun of doing so or in sympathy with an aspirant whose aim is just to have the primaries anulled.

“The evidence to warrant the exercise of the power of nullification by the court must be compelling and perhaps overwhelming”.

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Military Releases Pictures, Names of Soldiers Killed in Delta Community

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The Defence Headquarters has released the list of 17 military personnel killed in an attack in Delta State. 

The military personnel were killed last week in Okuama, a community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State after a peace mission.

Days after the gruesome murder, the Defence Headquarters said 17 personnel including the Commanding Officer of 181 Amphibious Battalion, two majors,  one captain, and 12 personnel of the battalion.

“May The Souls of the Departed Rest In Peace,” the Nigerian Army wrote on its X handle alongside a photo collage of the personnel on Monday evening.

The Defence Headquarters gave the names of those killed as:

– Lt Col AH Ali, the Command Officer, 181 Amphibious Battalion, Nigerian Army.

– Maj SD Shafa (N/13976)

– Maj DE Obi (N/14395)

– Capt U Zakari (N/16348)

– SSgt Yahaya Saidu (#3NA/36/2974)

– Cpl Yahaya Danbaba (1ONA/65/7274)

– Col Kabiru Bashir (11NA/66/9853)

– LCol Bulus Haruna (16NA/TS/5844)

– Lal Sole Opeyemi (17NA/760719)

– LCpl Bello Anas (17NA/76/290)

– LCpl Hamman Peter (NA/T82653)

– LCpl Ibrahim Abdullahi (18NA/77/1191)

– Pte Alhaji Isah (17NA/76/6079)

– Pte Clement Francis (19NA/78/0911)

– Pte Abubakar Ali (19NA/78/2162)

– Pte Ibrahim Adamu (19NA/78/6079)

– Pte Adamu Ibrahim (21NA/80/4795).

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Glo 1 Cable is the King of Telecoms

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By Eric Elezuo

Available data and recent happenings have proved that it is not by coincidence that leading telecommunications company, Globacom, is the market leader, not only in provision of telecom services, but in being proactive to foresee future occurrences. This is exemplified in its ability to remain running even as acclaimed major networks have temporarily packed up as a result of the main one cable malfunction a few days ago in Nigeria, and some African countries.

Globacom’s Glo 1 submarine cable has literally remained the only hope for internet users covering both banking and browsing usages.

The GLO-1 (Globacom-1) submarine communications cable, which came on board in 2009, is a cable system along the west coast of Africa between Nigeria and the UK, owned by Nigerian telecoms operator Globacom, under the dynamic leadership of Africa’s pride, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr.

The submarine cable system is 9,800 km long, and became operational in 2011 with a minimum capacity of 640 Gbit/s.

A project of Globacom, Nigeria’s 2nd largest telecoms provider, total capacity of the system is now advertised as 2.5 Tbit/s. The cable’s link to Ghana was turned up in April, 2011, meaning that Ghana subscribers are part of the millions still enjoying uninterrupted network experience, the failure of main one, notwithstanding.

It would be recalled that massive internet outages was reported in Nigeria following damage to international undersea cables supplying the country with connectivity.

But Glo was not affected, a testimonial that Nigeria should celebrate the brand as against other networks that buckled under the weight of the underwater cable failure, the humongous money they are making from Nigerians notwithstanding. Those also goes to show that they don’t believe in the country.

Reports show that telecommunications companies and a number of banks which rely on the affected cables for internet services were affected by the outage, and will continue to be partially or completely out of service for the next five weeks if reports emanating from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is anything to go by.

According to reports, the damage affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire and has led to internet downtime across West and South African countries.

The undersea cables affected are the West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3.

However, Glo 1, owned by Nigeria’s leading digital services company, Globacom, was not affected by the damage and has continued to operate normally. Data users, internet service providers and financial institutions which run on Glo 1 have continued to operate normally.

Industry analysts believe the sturdy nature and resilience of Glo 1 International Submarine Cable is the reason the damage did not affect the cable.

It would be recalled that the Glo submarine cable system Glo 1, made a historic landing in Alfa Beach, Lagos, Nigeria, in 2009. The landing marked the beginning of cheap bandwidth which in itself translated into many possibilities in the Information and Communications sectors of the Nigerian economy.

The project jointly executed by Globacom and its partners, Alcatel Lucent gave and continues  to give Nigeria lead in telemedicine, eCommerce and egovernance among other practices that transform economies.

Then, the Executive Director, Human Resources, Mr Adewale Shangowawa, noted that with the landing of the Glo1 submarine cable, Globacom has scored another first and as well has taken a bold step to give Nigeria the lead in the magical broadband revolution in Africa.

The 9800km cable from Bude in UK, connects Nigeria to the rest of West Africa and the UK. It has landing points in Nigeria, London and Lisbon in Portugal. It is deploying 16 branching units to connect countries in West Africa.

The ED added that globally, the tradition is for a consortium of telecommunication companies to team up to set up a submarine cable network to enhance their connectivity and bandwidth capacity. Globacom became an exception to the norm.

Glo is the first single telecommunication company in the world to own its submarine cable. The high capacity Glo 1 optic fibre cable brought functional direct connectivity between West Africa, the UK and the rest of the world. The 9,800 km long cable provided huge capacity on its 2-fibre pair system. The Glo 1 cable also made available excess bandwidth to all the cities connected to the cable.

This will translate into much faster and more robust connectivity for voice, data and video. The cable will connect 14 West African countries through the branching units to the rest of the world. It will boost economic activities in the region, create job opportunities and serve companies in Europe and Africa.

Facts of the submarine cable landing included that Glo 1 provides connectivity from Lagos to Bude in United Kingdom through fibre optic cable laid undersea.

The cable which is of the 32 STM 64 type has virtual infinite capacity and therefore offers sufficient capacity for traffic for the Globacom’s mobile, fixed, and internet telecommunication services.

Last September, the $250 million Glo-1 cable system landed initially in Lagos and in Accra in Ghana. With 2.5 Tbps of capacity, the Glo-1 cable has been ready for commissioning since July 2010.

Mike Adenuga Jr., Globacom’s chairman, while describing the $250 million project, said the Glo-1 cable will provide Nigerian user’s two benefits: become part of the competitive telecom landscape and make broadband access and long-distance voice service more affordable.

As a company with unparalleled vision, and proactive initiatives, Glo in 2018, and in a bid to boost its data services and remain preferred data services provider with clarity and reach, commenced upgrading its undersea cable, Glo 1 capacity by 100G.

Bisi Koleoso, a deputy chief operating officer, Technical, then, which explaining the process said that, in addition the company as well is investing in equipment for more path redundancy for the Glo 1 in case of fiber cut. In 2024, fibre cut occurred, and Glo is still up and running.

“As the innovation leader in Nigeria’s telecom space, Globacom is committed to ensuring that Nigerians were not left behind in the march to a digitalised world.

“We have invested massively in new technologies to introduce these products which we believe will redefine business, social and personal pursuits,” the DCO had said.

The visionary company did not stop there however. Consequently, on April 8, 2011, it followed up the launch of the sub-marine optical fibre cable, Glo I Submarine Cable, which gulped a whopping $800 million, thereby making it the first telecommunication company to build such a high-capacity optic fibre from the United Kingdom to Nigeria with the rolling out of the Glo 2 submarine cable. The submarine optic fibre cables was designed to connect Lagos directly to Southern parts of Nigeria.

The submarine cables was programmed to “contain three fiber pairs. Fiber Pair 1 (Express) will connect Lagos directly to Southern part of Nigeria with terrestrial extension to existing terrestrial backbone.

“Fiber Pair, also known as Omnibus 1, has eight branching units to offshore oil stations and communities. Fiber Pair 3, otherwise called Omnibus 2, contains two switchable branching units southward Africa.”

The Glo II Submarine Cable would boost overall socio-economic development of the Niger Delta, and offer greater bandwidth for local ICT business to flourish and provide backup for the terrestrial fibre route from Port Harcourt to Lagos.

The company further explained that Glo 2 will equally be much more reliable as far as fibre cut is concerned, assuring that Globacom “has put in place workable plans to scale up the network for the future and innovation in products.

A statement on the effect, read in part: “We plan to initiate new data analytic tools to capture subscribers’ experience in real time and also take pre-emptive actions to improve the network. Also new sites would be rolled out into rural areas, banishing digital divide between cities and villages….to increase capacity by giving a congestion-free network and superior quality in voice data. We also plan to swap old equipment in other states with better quality ones, so that our subscribers can have better services.”

Glo’s invincibility in the telecommunication world is nothing short of insightful leadership, clear cut vision and the passion to put customers first in all its undertakings. This is not forgetting that it has done everything to project Nigeria’s ingenuity in the field of telecommunication,  and by extention other fields.

Glo is flourishing under the leadership of the spirit of Africa, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr., and the Executive Vice Chairman, Mrs Bella Adenuga-Disu.

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Glo Unveils Korrect Predict Lottery Service, Rewards Subscribers with Cash, Airtime

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A new product, Glo Korrect Predict Lottery has been unveiled by telecommunications services provider, Globacom. Under the new service, any sports lover on Glo network who successfully predicts the final outcomes of football matches played across the world will be rewarded with fantastic cash prizes and free airtime.

“Sports Prediction Market has witnessed significant growth over the years, with a projected value of over $155 billion globally by 2024 and that, the growth is driven by the proliferation of smartphones, increase in online betting platforms, as well as increased sports viewership and adoption of technology”, Globacom said in a statement In Lagos.

This trend, the company explained underscored the unveiling of the new service Korrect Predict lottery, which it said, will give subscribers the opportunity to win cash gifts from predicting match results accurately.

According to Globacom “Subscribers will receive 2 football matches daily for them to predict the correct scores after which those who accurately predict the outcomes of their preferred matches will win amazing prizes from Glo”.

To subscribe to Korrect Predict, you will either dial the USSD Command *7023# or send the keyword “KPRD” to the shortcode “7023” to subscribe to the daily plan costing just N50 or send the keyword “KPW” to the shortcode “7023” to subscribe to the weekly plan of N150. Upon successful subscription, you will receive an SMS with a link to access the service”.

For the first active subscription when they select any of the daily, or weekly auto-renewal plan, Glo said subscribers will enjoy free trial, adding that “This means that a new subscriber can activate the service at no cost for the first twenty-four hours, after which he or she will then be charged for the next renewal cycle. Subscribers who do not want to be charged after the free trial and buy offer will have to cancel their service renewal before the twenty-four hours elapse by dialing the USSD command for deactivation”.

Glo Korrect Predict provides access to two daily predictions on football matches across Africa, Asian, American and European Leagues including Asian League, English Premiership, Italian Serie A,Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1 and Portugese Primeira Liga and it can be accessed by all Glo subscribers via SMS, USSD, and Web.

To subscribe to the daily plan costing just N50 subscribers will either dial the USSD Command *7023# or send the keyword “KPRD” to the shortcode “7023” or send the keyword “KPW” to the shortcode “7023” to subscribe to the weekly plan of N150. An SMS with a link to access the service will be sent to the subscribers upon successful subscription.

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