BREAKING: Saraki’s appeal against CCT dismissed

                                                

The Appellant Court sitting in Abuja, on Thursday dismissed the appeal filed by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, questioning the jurisdiction of the Code of Conduct Tribunal to try him on charges bordering on false assets declaration.

The Justice Abdul Aboki-led panel, delivering judgment on the matter filed by the Senate President, affirmed the CCT’s jurisdiction, while dismissing the appeal filed by Saraki.

Saraki had filed a fresh case suit challenging the jurisdiction of the Danladi Umar-led CCT to try him on false assets declaration charges

Justice Aboki, while affirming the earlier ruling of the Tribunal’s Chairman, Danladi Umar that affirmed the tribunal’s jurisdiction, held that against Saraki’s contention, the Attorney-General of the Federation had the power to institute charges against him before the CCT.

The Justice Aboki-led panel further held that under the Constitution, CCT was not under any obligation to invite the appellant to enable him to make written admission of breaches in his asset declaration forms before charges could be initiated against him.

 Source:Daily post Nigeria

Nigeria: Govt begins Production of local Vaccines

                                       

The federal government is set to commence local production of vaccines as a deliberate effort to save the lives of more than seven million new born babies in the country.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, stated this while receiving the Nigerian Immunization Financing Task Force Team in his office in Abuja yesterday.

The Minister said the Ministry was determined to lead the way in the local production of vaccines, saying there was no justification for the nation to continue to spend on importation of what it could do.

He said: "We used to produce and export vaccines in the past, Today, we are struggling to be self-sufficient, we need to go back to those things that helped us in the past.

"We don't want to continually remain a poor nation, and rather being recipient of grants, we should be able to give grants to other countries.

"The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology will lead the way in making sure that vaccines are produced in the country to satisfy local needs and eventually for export to other African countries."

Germany in History:The Fall of The Berlin Wall

                                  

The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls,which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.

The Berlin Wall was officially referred to as the "Anti-Fascist Protective Wall" (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) by GDR authorities, implying that the NATO countries and West Germany in particular were considered equal to "fascists" by GDR propaganda. The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the "Wall of Shame"—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement. Along with the separate and much longer Inner German border (IGB), which demarcated the border between East and West Germany, it came to symbolize a physical marker of the "Iron Curtain" that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.

Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from which they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration.During this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin.

In 1989, a series of radical political changes occurred in the Eastern Bloc, associated with the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall; the governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of what was left. Contrary to popular belief the Wall's actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on 3 October 1990.

Compiled by Adalbert Hendrik