President Bola Tinubu has appointed Dr. Innocent Barikor as the Director-General of the National Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency.

He also appointed Ebitimi Amgbare as the Managing Director/CEO of the Niger Delta River Basin Development Authority.

The Presidency announced the appointments on Friday in a statement signed by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, titled ‘President Tinubu appoints chief executive officers of two agencies.’

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Barikor is an academic, politician and former Rivers State House of Assembly member from 2011 to 2015.

He succeeds Prof. Aliyu Jauro, who former President Muhammadu Buhari first appointed in February 2019.

In February 2023, Buhari reappointed Jauro for another four-year tenure to elapse in 2027.

Meanwhile, Amgbare is a retired naval officer and former commissioner in Bayelsa State.

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He succeeds Dr. Adeniyi Aremu, whom Buhari first appointed in January 2017. Aremu was reappointed for another four-year tenure in January 2021.

The President said he expects the new heads of these important agencies to “discharge their duties with utmost fidelity to the nation and unfailing adherence to the highest standards of professionalism, accountability, and excellent service to the people of Nigeria.”

The outgoing Vice Chancellor, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi State, Prof. Muhammad AbdulAziz has advocated that drug test should also be administered on lecturers and not only the students.

AbdulAziz stated this in Bauchi on Friday during the handing over ceremony while delivering his valedictory speech to the Senate of the University.

According to him, this would further sanitise the university system and promote sanctity as well as academic excellence.

“We have discussed with the Federal Ministry of Education and they want to introduce to all universities that before any student would be registered in the universities, he must undergo drug tests.

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“As such, if students would undergo drug tests, I felt that even some of us, the staff, need to undergo this drug test so that we know our status because we can not be asking our students to go for a drug test whereas we are not conducting the test.

“We also have to volunteer to have this test done to us because we have to sanitize the university. The character is very important for all of us

“If the students are to be subjected to drug tests to determine their mental health status, nothing is wrong if the lecturers too are subjected to the same test. That is the only way to check excesses in the University system,” he said.

He said that the modest achievements recorded in the areas of infrastructural development, academic content development and community services during his tenure could not have been possible without the support of all stakeholders in the system.

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He appreciated the federal government for the support rendered to the University through the Federal Ministry of Education and its various agencies like the National Universities Commission and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund.

Also speaking, the Acting Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Sani Kunya, said that the handing over marked the beginning of the responsibility the Senate of the institution bestowed on him.

He expressed gratitude to the Senate of the University for finding him worthy of the honour and to the Federal Government of Nigeria for the confirmation.

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“I want to assure you that your valuable confidence in me will not be disappointing.

“I shall do everything within my capability to build on the legacies of my predecessors in terms of maintaining and improving academic excellence,” he assured.

A High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has discharged and acquitted a traditional ruler, Kelvin Anugwo, and 42 others standing trial for the murder of the late Divisional Police Officer of Ahoada East Division, Bako Angbashim.

The accused persons were standing trial on a four-count charge of cultism, armed robbery, murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.

Over 50 persons were arrested and arraigned after SP Angbashim was captured, killed and his body dismembered by notorious cult leader, late David Okpara, and his gang members in the Oduemude community in Ahoada East local government area of the state in September 2023.

When the matter came up in court on Friday, the Director of Public Prosecution, C.F. Amadi, told the court that the accused persons have no prima face case established against them and therefore have no case to answer.

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The trial judge, Justice Sika Aprioku, relying on the advice from the office of the DPP discharged and acquitted the accused persons.

Speaking with journalists outside the courtroom, counsel to the 37th defendant (Ekashie Emehi) said the ruling shows the accused are innocent and can go about their normal duties, expressing dismay that his client was arrested in the guise of an invitation.

Emehi stated, “He was arrested in the guise of an invitation that the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations wants to see him and he was arrested on a Sunday.

“Now as far as this matter is concerned, what it means by a prima face case not being established means that the person is not connected to that case.

“So on that note is free and he has his full liberty to handle his affairs and would no more come back to this matter.”

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Also speaking, the freed monarch, Kelvin Anugwo, who is the Eze Ekpeye Logbo III of Ahoada Kingdom, described the ruling as justice for the people of the area.

He said, “All the allegations levelled against us have been thrown out today. So we give God all the glory. Our victory today is hinged on the hands of God, not human beings.

“What it means is that the kingdom should be happy that today God has vindicated us, and as such they can be proud that they have a king that stands by the truth.”

Our correspondent reports that Gift Okpara, popularly known as 2baba who was the prime suspect in the murder of the late DPO was killed during a joint security raid in one of his hideouts in Idu-Ekpeye community in Ahoada East LGA.

The wanted cult leader’s body was later exhumed from a shallow grave in a forest where his gang buried him and was paraded before newsmen at the State Police Command headquarters along Moscow Road, Port Harcourt by the Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu on 23 February 2024.