Again, FG seeks protection of witnesses in Dasuki’s trial (Read full details)

Former national security adviser (NSA), retired Col. Sambo Dasuki<br />PHOTO: NAN

The Federal Government for the second time yesterday sought protection of witnesses that would be testifying against the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki.

Dasuki is facing trial for alleged unlawful possession of firearms and money laundering brought against him by the Department of State Security Service (DSS).

The fresh application dated January 23 and filed on January 24 by the prosecution counsel, Chief Oladipo Okpeseyi (SAN), is praying the Federal High Court, Abuja, to shield names and addresses of witnesses from public knowledge.

But in a strong opposition to the fresh request, Dasuki, through his counsel, Ahmed Raji (SAN), asked the court to dismiss government’s application on the ground that it lacked merit and constituted a gross abuse of court process.

The Ex-NSA in a counter-affidavit filed by Raji, further argued that there was no justification for the Federal Government to have brought the motion for secret trial a second time, having lost in the first motion.

The defendant insisted that the Federal Government had on its own volition, placed the charges against Dasuki on the Internet, where the names, addresses and positions of the witnesses were conspicuously put at the disposal of the general public.

The defendant insisted that when the first application was argued by the then Director, Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), Mr. Mohamed Diri, Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the same court, in a landmark ruling, dismissed the request on the ground that the witnesses were already known by the public, having published their names on the Internet.

He said what the prosecution ought to do if not satisfied with the decision of Justice Ademola, was to have gone to the Court of Appeal to ventilate its anger.

The defendant, who attached a copy of the earlier court ruling to the application therefore urged the trial Judge, Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed, not to entertain the fresh motion for a secret trial because it would violate his right to fair trial and will run contrary to the principle of rule of law and natural justice.

When the motion came up yesterday, Opeseyi could not move the motion on the ground that the defence had just served him a voluminous counter-affidavit, objecting the motion.

Noting however that so many fundamental issues were raised in the counter-affidavit and that plethora of authorities were also cited in the counter affidavit, the prosecution counsel consequently applied for an adjournment to enable him study the counter-affidavit and respond to it appropriately.

The defence did not object to the request for the adjournment but clarified that the fresh motion for secret trial was served on the defendant last Thursday, hence, the counter-affidavit prepared over the weekend was served yesterday within the time allowed by law.

Justice Mohammed therefore fixed hearing of the motion for March 1.

Transmission firm decries poor funding of power sector (Read full details)

Transmission Company of Nigeria

Amid the persistent outage nationwide, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has indentified inadequate funding as one of the major challenges militating against prompt transmission of power across the federation.

TCN’s Managing Director, Dr Abubakar Atiku, in a presentation yesterday in Abuja, enumerated other hiccups to include evacuation bottlenecks, menace of erosion of tower bases, violation of transmission right of ways, ageing workforce, lack of adequate technical manpower at various work centres, obsolete substation equipment and overloaded transmission lines and substations.

The list also had control of the grid which is still largely manual, inadequate infrastructure coverage, limited funds for developmental projects, slow performance by contractors, unpredictable energy sources, the gape disparity between energy supply and demand, inadequate telecommunication facilities and control aids which limit operational effectiveness and low voltage in the north due to concentration of power stations in the south.

He explained that the effects of evacuation bottlenecks, which include generation-transmission interface constraints, transmission substation capacity constraints, transmission wheeling constraints and transmission-distribution interface constraints, lead to other problems such as load shedding, voltage/frequency instability, stranded power and system collapse.

Atiku particularly lamented that the inadequate funding of the power agency was seriously hampering its operations, saying of the N30 billion approved for it in the 2016 budget, only N20 billion was released in the second and third quarters of the year.

Elton John to turn ‘Devil Wears Prada’ into musical (Read full details)

John will write the music for "The Devil Wears Prada," with lyrics to be penned by Paul Rudnick, a humorist who frequently writes for The New Yorker magazine.

Pop superstar Elton John unveiled Thursday his return to Broadway with a musical adaptation of the blockbuster film and novel “The Devil Wears Prada.”

John will write the music for “The Devil Wears Prada,” with lyrics to be penned by Paul Rudnick, a humorist who frequently writes for The New Yorker magazine.

“Reimagining ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ for the musical theatre is super exciting,” John said in a statement, which added that the production timeline will be announced later.

“I’m a huge fan of both the book and the feature film, and a huge aficionado of the fashion world. I can’t wait to sink my musical teeth into this hunk of popular culture,” the English musician said.

While Broadway is notoriously tough terrain even for famous names, John has a proven record of triumph with musicals.

“The Lion King,” his musical adaptation of the Disney animated film, set the record as the first show to gross $1 billion on Broadway where it remains the third longest-running show in history.

He also found success with a musical adaptation of Verdi’s opera “Aida” as well as “Billy Elliot the Musical,” which closed last year after a successful run on London’s West End.

Meryl Street and Anne Hathaway starred in the 2006 film “The Devil Wears Prada” about an all-powerful fashion magazine editor who tyrannically imposes her will on an ambitious young editorial assistant.

A major international box-office success, “The Devil Wears Prada” was based on the popular novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger. The author formerly worked for longtime Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, although she has never confirmed that Wintour was the inspiration.

Elton John to turn ‘Devil Wears Prada’ into musical