Court Orders Forfeiture Of Properties Of Former Nigerian Petroleum Minister

By Ipoola Ayodeji

A Federal High Court based in Lagos State has ordered the interim forfeiture of an estate in Banana Island area of the Lagos state linked to former Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Deizani Alison Madueke.

According to reports, Mrs Diezani and her cronies have fraudulently siphoned about $11Billion from offshore processing agreements (OPAs) popularly known as oil swap. The report also stated that during her stay in office, Nigeria lost about $50 billion in the petroleum sector.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of money that been fraudulently siphoned by the former Minister during her stay in office.

Justice Chuka Obiozor who presided over the case made the forfeiture order after listening to an exparte application brought by the Head of Legal of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) Mr Anselm Ozioko.

A directive has also been given to the EFCC to publish the court orders in newspapers so that any interested party who does not want the money to be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government could appear in court within 14 days.

Reports also made it known that the former minister will be ready to name over 200 accomplices who helped and participated in the alleged fraud.

The case was adjourned to August 7, 2017 for anyone interested in the property and funds to appear before him.

Kogi State Governor Threatens KSU With Sack Letter

By Ipoola Ayodeji

Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has announced the proscription of the Kogi State chapter of the Academic staff union of Universities (ASUU) with immediate effect.
The governor announced the proscription on Wednesday after an emergency State Executive committee meeting.
He then called for an immediate resumption of lecturers to academic activities or be sacked with immediate effect.

The governor said his decision became necessary as all efforts to make members of the institution see reasons to call off their over six month-old-strike action had failed.

OpenCon Ife Scheduled To Hold On 29th July 2017

OpenCon is the student and early career academic professional conference on Open Access, Open Education and Open Data. Last year's global meeting was held November 12-14, 2016 in Washington DC. And this year's global event is coming up November, 2017.

In the light of these, OpenCon 2017 Ife is a satellite event, project led by the next generation to advance OpenCon's three focus areas - Open Access, Open Education and Open Data. It is to advance research works done by student in Nigeria Tertiary institutions. Have you ever thought about what could become of you, have you ever thought about, where your efforts will led too, or are you concern about what your efforts can turn too as a student that is Final year project. An open graduate academic research will create the following

- Bridging graduate with potential employees
- Advancing academic research output
- Appreciating well put efforts
- Leverages
- Better approach to environmental, societal issues.
-Discovery of innovations and inventory.
- Ownership of intellectual property.

Although, the question of, reliability of final year projects data, plagiarism, are issues that could hinder it's adoption or acceptance. But, the filtration to get the best that stands out, such as those that are specific, indigenous, innovative, with new idea, is something that will mitigate the other defaults or deficits.

Join us on July 29th, 2017, with
Wikimedia UG Nigeria, (Wikimedia, owner of the Internet domain name Wikipedia), who will provide a strategy workshop training.
Connected Development - An international award winning anti corruption organizations, tracking Government funding with date.

Venue: Cooperative Hall, Behind Banking Area, Obafemi Awolowo University.
Time: 10am.
Attendance is free.

Click  HERE to register

OAU Student To Launch Online Business Summit

Ndimele Kingsley

Kingsley Ndimele, a young African Entrepreneur is set to host an online business summit. Kingsley, who is currently an undergraduate of the Department of Agricultural Economics in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria is also the Managing Director/Consultant of NOVEL Nigeria (a fast growing international business brand and organized, purpose driven company with several subsidiaries).

          In a quest to carry forward its core belief (excellence) internally, enriching lives of societies to next generations, the management of NOVEL Nigeria initiated a plaform tagged; YES! Online Interactive Forum. One of the objectives of the online platform is to develop and nurture the young, dexterous workforce and aggressively promote the creative drive, sustainable development and foster unique values in upcoming entrepreneurs.

          In October 2017, NOVEL Nigeria is bringing the first online business summit to Africa cyberspace tagged YES! Festival.
          YES! Festival is a 30-day online business summit for successful business leaders, brand owners and aspiring entrepreneurs from different fields of business leaders all over the world.
          The event is targeted to feature at least top 30 business leaders across 25 African countries and at least 500 participants.
          The program line-up includes; business lectures, book reviews, YES! Charity Tour, YES! Essay Contest and lots more.
          The event scheduled to hold on 2nd - 31st October, 2017 is undoubtedly the most anticipated online event in Africa.
Registration for YES! Festival commenced since June, 2017.

For registration, enquiries and updates, visit www.novelnigeria.blogspot.com or Call/WhatsApp +2348102969700

OAU Students Dreading Or Anticipating Strikes?

By Akinfenwa Olaitan

For us in the OAU community, the past week has been a particularly dramatic and interesting week. Quite a number of events that erupted based on the Professor Elujoba trial reflected a lot of opinions of both students and staff members of OAU. In fact, we can say that every faction of the university had a role to play in the events of this week.

First off, recalling to mind that the erstwhile Vice Chancellor was arraigned to court by the EFCC, leading to the call for the solidarity strike by the ASUU OAU Chapter on Monday and Tuesday, and then the controversy with the national body of ASUU. In addition, the power outage and water scarcity on campus and all the ruckus that ensued led to lecture boycotts by the Students' Union that generally brought only one thing to mind - Strike.

The all too familiar feeling of impending strike was so pronounced that students envisioned that all academic activities would be suspended for a long time.
What surprises me most, however, is that the feeling of impending strike was gladly welcome by OAU students, rather than feared. I was amazed to realize that many students actually wanted the troubling events of the week to result into a strike! Isn't it interesting that this is OAU, where embarking on a strike used to be a most dreadful thing for us. This weird anticipation resulted in a conflict of desires for us because while we wanted better welfare conditions, we also secretly wanted the poor conditions to result into a protest and consequent strike.

And so we've had a smooth session for once and we're already missing the old days of  This is quite funny, as students were actually asking for a few weeks of strike so as to relax. Many already seriously preparing to go home, many discarded their upcoming tests and stopped preparing for them altogether. In fact, the jubilation that erupted when a lecture was boycotted made it all too clear what students wanted.
However, regrettably for some, the crisis has settled, electricity and order has been restored. Classes are holding and the looming strike has been forestalled for the meantime. So, we can all forget our fanciful ideas of a premature holiday and go back to our studies peacefully. Finally, tests and exams are fast approaching and our OAU has a new reputation of a smooth calendar which should be a cause of joy to us, not of displeasure.

Elujoba's Trial: Court Grants Erstwhile VC Bail, VC Urges Workers To Resume Work

By Farombi Oluwaseun
The Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-ife was today filled with positive emotions as the erstwhile Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Anthony Elujoba was granted bail by the Federal High Court, Osogbo on the basis of Self Recognizance.


Professor Elujoba, who is facing trial on alleged misappropriation of funds during is time as Acting Vice-Chancellor has been held in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for the past ten days. Despite being reputable for restoring peace to the Obafemi Awolowo University Campus, there are claims that the Professor of Pharmacognosy might have broken the law. 


Members of staff and student unions would however not subscribe to these beliefs as many claim that the allegations arise from a witch-hunt by some caucuses that have deterred the progress of the University over the past few years.

Upon Professor Elujoba's arrival to the University Campus, workers, Students and other members of the University Campus could not contain their emotions as they took to the streets to welcome the former acting Vice-Chancellor. However, although Professor Elujoba would not address the crowd for safety reasons, the current Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor​ Eyitope Ogunbodede appreciated the members of the University Campus present for their support for Professor Elujoba, he then went on to further encourage the workers to resume back to work, reiterating that he was going to uphold the peace that the former Vice-Chancellor had brought to Campus.

However, the case remains in court and many hope that the truth would ultimately be revealed. In the meantime, Professor Elujoba has been granted bail on Self Recognizance, while Mrs Akeredolu, with whom he faces trial has been granted bail under the condition of the payment of N50m and the provision of two sureties.

Fajuyi Hall Lower Buttery Gutted By Flames

The lower buttery of the Adekunle Fajuyi Hall was engulfed in fire at about 9:15pm last night.

The outbreak was as a result of the negligence of the buttery operators. They allegedly left a container of petrol beside the exhaust pipe of the buttery's generator. It took the effort of Fajuyians led by the hall's Financial Secretary (HOLOYE) and some residents to extinguish the fire before the arrival of the Fire Fighters.

The buttery has since been shutdown for security reasons due to the fact that during the course of extinguishing the fire, some cases of theft occurred as some unscrupulous individuals seized the opportunity to loot some goods in the buttery.
More info on the fire will be provided as it unfolds.