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NATIONAL NEWS Headline of March 20 welcomes us today with this egregious blunder: “Security Chiefs (unnecessary capitalization) keep mum after close doors (closed-door) meeting with Buhari”
“The Management and Staff of Enugu State Housing Development Corporation…on his attainment of 55th birthday anniversary” A rewrite: on his attainment of 55 years or on his 55th birthday.
“He came at 7 a. m. in the morning” Either he came at 7 a. m. or 7 in the morning. Both cannot co-function. The same thing applies to “p. m. in the evening”. ‘A. m.’ and ‘p.m.’ refer to morning and evening, respectively.
“We…reaffirm our commitment to the provision of affordable serviced (service) parcels of land….”
“Your Excellency, your unparalleled landmark achievements in infrastructural and human capital development transcends (why?)….” (Full-page advertorial by Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board, Office of the Executive Chairman)
Develop“The Tribunal has (had) earlier nullified the election of the….” (THISDAY Front Page, March 23)
“Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique in crutch (crunch) qualifying battle”
“…to stimulate employment, build more roads and other social amenities or solve one social problem or the other.” Going by the contextual pluralism of the extract, the right expression should be: one social problem or another.
“Group assures on rancour free PDP Congress” Still on this recurrent blunder: who did the group assure? And this: rancour-free….
“Kalu condemns do or die politics” This way: do-or-die politics.
“The race to Government House in Kano has began in earnest as….” Without any effort: The race has begun….
“The non Passage (sic) of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) did not help matters….” 2018 Review: The non-passage (take note of the hyphen and lower case ‘p’)….
“I seize (take) this opportunity to express gratitude to my readers for their commitment and patronage.” ‘Seize’ is American aberration.
Last week’s edition of this medium offered our teeming readers copious goofs: “Ex-president Umaru Yar’Adua was on his sick bed….” No eavesdropping: in his sick bed. One of the clerics who allegedly visited him sat on his sick bed. Got the point?
“…a gubernatorial (governorship) aspirant in Ogun State under (on) the platform of….”
“…those who would have uttered (what?) them reduced everyone to spectators while they reached for each other’s throats.” Get it right: each other’s throat or one another’s throats (depending on context).
“After all, as they say, ‘what is good for the goose is good for the gander’ ’’. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
“Knowing what to wear and how to compliment (complement) it goes a long way….”
Vanguard COMMENT and VIEWPOINT of March 28 sent out the following errors: “The state, therefore, does not deserve the treatment being currently meted to it”. Classical expression: being meted out to it.
“Chief of Naval Staff advocates for increased productivity via industrialization” When used as a verb, ‘advocate’ does not admit ‘for’. Let us avoid verbiage in headline casting: Naval Chief advocates increased productivity.
“For the university to recommend that students should pay for the damages while they have….” A common mistake: except in legalese, ‘damage’ cannot be pluralized.
“…rather than investigating and finding out who were involved and check against future re-occurrence…beyond recurrence, can an event yet to take place happen in the past?
“…the university is pointing its accusing fingers in the direction of the lecturers.” True idiom: point a/the finger. No inclusion of ‘accusing’ or inflection of ‘finger’.
“It is our belief that we members of the alumni association of our alma Mata (Alma Mater) have unique roles to play in the restoration of sanity on our university campus.” It is…restoration of sanity to (not on) our campus.
“Isn’t it funny that it is the beak with which a bird builds it’s (sic) nest that it uses to scatter it.” Possessive: its
“…the AU summiteers concentrated almost exclusive (sic) on the political independence and liberation of countries in (on) the continent.”
Vanguard of March 4 contained two putrid lines: “Monday’s action, which started at dawn, was as a result of the breakdown of series of negotiations…” An agendum: a series of negotiations.
“According to investigations, the deceased was said to be resting alone in his room at about 9.p.m….” Every reporter should be decisive based on timing which description to use: either at or about 9 p.m. The two cannot co-function.
“According to the source, the institution has a very high percentage of failure in the last academic year.” Reported speech: the institution had (not has).
“… that the authorities of the institution was (were) still waiting the result of the police analysis of the bomb”.
“…in the next three years, its per capital income would have …” This way: per capita income.
THE GUARDIAN On Sunday of March 24 circulated dozens of blunders: “Then it was catalogue of misses for the Super Eagles.” In the spirit of qualification: a catalogue of misses.
“The home of the chairman… was vandalized and most of his properties littered outside.” No chaos: most of his property.
Kogi Assembly seeks removal of chief judge
Kogi State House of Assembly has recommended the removal of the Chief Judge, Nasir Ajanah, over alleged gross misconduct.
The recommendation was adopted on Tuesday after the house committee on public account presented its report on the state’s auditor-general’s 2016 financial statements.
The report presented by Ahmed Mohammed, committee chairman, indicted the Kogi state high court and Kogi Hajj Commission of financial breaches.
The state assembly asked the chief judge to step aside to defend himself over the indictment by the auditor-general report, adding that others indicted in the report will be punished.
The committee asked the state government to pay salaries of judicial officials who have been on a six-month strike.
The judicial officials had on Monday protested over an alleged move by Yahaya Bello, governor of the state, to remove the chief judge.
They alleged that the governor had instructed Matthew Kolawole, speaker of the state assembly, to effect the removal of the chief judge upon resumption from recess on Tuesday.
Emmanuel Waniko, chairman of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria in the state, said the removal of the chief judge will be resisted.
“We were last paid in June 2018 which makes it a total of nine months today that we are being owed our legitimate salaries,” Waniko said.
“We are therefore upbeat that even after almost four months that our courts are shut down because of our ongoing strike, the state assembly would make itself available to further foster another crisis on the state through this proposed illegal removal of the chief judge.”
